A year on since it acquired aGerman wind turbine manufactur-er, FKI plc has finally unveiled itsnew UK wind turbine productionoperation for its DeWind turbines.FKI held an Open Day in June toshow-off their wind turbine manu-facturing capabilities to over 100guests from industry, government,NGOs, and the media. The OpenDay kicked off with a presentationfrom David Rowland, MD ofDeWind UK operations whoclaimed that FKI was not in fact anewcomer to wind manufacture.Charles F. Brush of FKI’s BrushElectrical Machines was an earlywind pioneer constructing theworld’s first wind energy converterfor electricity production back in1888. The device had over 70cedar wood blades with a 17mblade diameter. A far cry fromtoday’s machines but, as noted bymany, some interesting and notwidely known information on thecompany’s early experiences inwind. Today based at its 90 acreLoughborough facility, FKI has the capacity to produce over 130wind turbines of up to 2MW

power rating. At present the opera-tion is producing 2 turbines perweek having shipped its first tur-bine last Christmas. Sarah Kydd,Head of Renewables UK wel-comed the new facility and passedon a message from the newlyinstalled UK Energy Minister,Stephen Timms saying: "Theopening of this facility is excellentnews for manufacturing and jobsin the region and for the UK windenergy market as a whole. Our aimis to increase the amount of energygenerated by renewable sourcesand to cut our carbon dioxideemissions by 60% by 2050. This isa significant step in developing therenewable energy supply chainnecessary to meet these targets."

DeWind was acquired by theEnergy Technology group of FKIplc in June last year and due to therapid development of wind powerexpected in the UK over the com-ing years, FKI decided to locateone of its global manufacturingsites in the UK. Reg GottManaging Director of FKI EnergyTechnology group highlighted thesynergies between FKI’s expertise

and DeWind’s experiences to datein wind turbine manufacturing.He highlighted FKI’s 100 years ofexperience in power systems equip-ment manufacture and supply withexpertise in manufacture of turbo-generators, low voltage generators,switch gears and transformers andrun-of-river & pumped storagehydro. The company also hasexpertise in measurement and con-trol (wide area SCADA systems rel-evant for application in wind farmdevelopment); offshore electricalpower and management systemsand local and embedded genera-tion. FKI intends to develop windmanufacturing operations at otherexisting sites in Pilsen, CzechRepublic and Rotterdam, TheNetherlands.

Contact: Reg Gott, ManagingDirector, FKI Energy Technology;Tel: +44 (0)1509 612710,www.fki-et.com; David Rowland,Managing Director, DeWind UKOperations; Tel: +44 (0)1509612342; Walter Delabar, PR,DeWind, Germany, Tel: + 49 4513073 262; pr@dewind.de;www.dewind.de

July/August 2003 REFOCUS www.re-focus.net

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NEWS IN BRIEFGamesa-MadeGamesa recently announcedthe acquisition of Endesa'swind turbine manufacturingunit, MADE, for an estimatedvalue of Euro119m. In addi-tion to selling the assets ofMADE, Endesa has alsoagreed to buy 890MW ofwind turbines from Gamesaover a 2-year period. Thereis also a 'first right ofrefusal' on a further 300MW. wwwwww..ggaammeessaa..eess

Vestas US orderVestas Wind Systems A/Shas via its 100% ownedAmerican subsidiary, Vestas– American Wind Techno-logy, Inc., received an orderto supply V80-1.8 MW windturbines in the US. Theorder has a value to Vestasof around Euro 100m andwill be delivered during thesecond half of 2003. wwwwww..vveessttaass..ccoomm

FKI unveils UK wind operation