Alstom Wind and NIRE Take Next Step in R&D Partnership
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Texas Continues to be a Focus of Alstom Wind as it Enters North American Market
Lubbock, TX, February 1, 2011--Alstom Wind and the National Institute for Renewable Energy (NIRE) announced today that testing has begun on the first Alstom wind turbine that will be certified in North America. Alstom Wind announced its entry into the North American wind power market last year when it announced strategic research partnerships with NIRE and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and said that it will construct a wind turbine assembly facility in Amarillo, Texas.
The certification of Alstom’s wind turbine, which will take place at the Reese Technology Center, a collaborator with Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, is expected to be concluded in Spring 2011. Officials of Alstom Wind, NIRE, and Texas Tech stressed that the long term R&D partnership will deliver benefits to the wind power market in Texas and across North America.
Alstom Wind and NIRE’s collaborative efforts will initially focus on grid integration research and development. Texas Tech University co-founded NIRE with The Innovate Texas Foundation as an independent, non-profit, public-private collaboration to investigate and resolve key scientific and technology issues facing the U.S. wind power industry. Alstom was a founding member of NIRE.
Andy Geissbuehler, Vice President and General Manager of Alstom Wind North America, said, “Our long term R&D collaborative partnership with NIRE continues to move forward. Coupled with the construction of our wind turbine assembly facility in Amarillo, it reinforces our commitment to the North American wind power market and enhances our ability to provide our customers with the efficiency, reliability, and cost-saving advantages of our proven technology.” Geissbuehler heads Alstom’s North American wind power business, which is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.
“The Alstom project is a great example of how NIRE uniquely brings commercial interests together with the best in academic research to advance renewable energy technologies for the greater good,” said Russell Thomasson, Chairman of the NIRE Board of Directors.
“We are pleased with the quality of the long-term collaboration which has developed with Alstom”, said David L. Miller, Vice Chancellor of Research and Commercialization for the Texas Tech University System. “Texas Tech is continuing to grow its research and workforce development expertise in the renewable energy and wind power sectors and is committed to building strategic partnerships with industrial and public sector collaborators. Our relationship with Alstom is a great example of this commitment to public-private partnerships to further enhance our nation’s energy independence.”
Alstom Wind is a division of Alstom Power, a global clean technology leader that has made investments across North America in wind, solar, tidal, nuclear, hydro, and carbon capture and sequestration technologies that will enable customers to decarbonize the supply of electricity. All of Alstom’s wind power offerings feature the ALSTOM PURE TORQUE ™ design. ALSTOM PURE TORQUE ™ is a unique rotor support concept protecting the gearbox and other drive train components from deflection loads, delivering higher gearbox reliability, higher operational availability, and lower maintenance costs.
About Alstom
Alstom is a global leader in the world of power generation, power transmission and rail infrastructure and sets the benchmark for innovative and environmentally friendly technologies. Alstom builds the fastest train and the highest capacity automated metro in the world. It provides turnkey integrated power plant solutions and associated services for a wide variety of energy sources, including hydro, nuclear, gas, coal and wind, and it offers a wide range of solutions for power transmission, with a focus on smart grids. The Group employs 96,500 people in more than 70 countries, and had sales of over € 23 billion* in 2009/10. (*Pro forma figures).
About Alstom Wind
Alstom Wind designs, assembles and installs a wide range of onshore wind turbines spanning 1.67 MW to 3 MW. The company is responsible for a significant share of the development of the Spanish wind power market, which is ranked second largest in Europe. Alstom Wind currently generates about 50% of its sales from other European countries. To date, the company has installed or is installing over 1850 wind turbines in more than 100 wind farms, corresponding to a total capacity of over 2200 MW.
About NIRE
The National Institute for Renewable Energy (NIRE, www.thenire.org) is a non-profit, public-private partnership commited to resolving the key scientific issues facing the wind power industry and to: build and operate research wind farms; develop other renewable energy research facilities; operate an industry-wide renewable energy consortium and provide commercial and technology development services to industry partners.
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PHOTO: Alstom's ECO 100 wind turbine platform.
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