Nordex wins contracts for 70 MW

Nordex has won contracts to supply and construct 70 MW in seven wind power stations in France using 28 of its N90 series turbines. Four of the plant will be built for Eurocape, a privately held firm investing in wind power in France, Italy, Poland and Portugal. First to come online in the spring will be a 4.6 MW installation at Lislet in the northerly Aisne département, followed in the autumn by the 35 MW Callengeville project, divided into three separate plant, in the nearby Seine-Maritime. While Eurocape has previously built and sold over 120 MW of wind power in France and Poland, these are the first plant it will continue to operate. It bought them fully permitted from local developer Eole 76, with whom Eurocape is working on further projects in northern France. The company says it has around 400 MW at an advanced stage of development in France and Poland. The remaining 12 Nordex 2.5 MW turbines are earmarked for a 30 MW project, again divided into three separate plant to qualify for subsidies under France's 12 MW limit, at Boulay in the Moselle département, on the border with Germany. The clients in this case are Germany's Boreas, Spain's Iberdrola and Poweo, an independent French electricity and gas supplier. The project was developed and is being managed by Boreas and will be its first to come online in France. Boreas decided to sell part of the project to concentrate on developing the rest of its portfolio. All three plant are to be commissioned by the end of 2007. Nordex, which had a dismal year in France in 2005 when none of its turbines came online, says it will have installed 137 turbines totalling 313 MW in France this year.