A new joint venture in the offshore wind
The Areva group and the Spanish company Gamesa have just announced a new joint venture in the offshore wind turbine sector. The project particularly aims to amortize risk and hasten development of a new generation of 8MW turbines.
European scale production centres on one side; cutting edge terrestrial wind turbines on the other. Areva and Gamesa are joining forces to create a joint venture in the offshore wind turbine sector. The two groups will thus be able to share the costs of investment and accelerate the deployment of new turbines.
Their first client is already secured: Iberdrola, which has a 19.7% stake in Gamesa, and which has chosen Areva’s M5000 turbine to equip its farms off France’s Atlantic coast at Saint-Brieuc and at Wikinger in the Baltic Sea.
This alliance enables the joint venture to beef up its product range, to which Areva’s M5000 turbine is a notable addition. The complementary strengths of the two groups is also propitious for mutualization of the R&D efforts of the two companies in the sector. Two projects are in the pipeline: a 5MW offshore turbine initially developed by Gamesa, and a new generation of 8MW turbines.
The parties have agreed to take equal shares in the venture. This agreement in the offshore wind turbine sector is reminiscent of the recent announcement between Vestas and Mitsubishi Heavy Industry for the commercialisation of the V164 super turbine.
Further information: www.areva.com
