FOUR SITES IN FORMER SOVIET UNION

A request for proposals (RFP) has been issued for supply next year of 36 MW of wind turbines for four sites in the former Soviet Union. Purchasers of the wind turbines will be Soviet Enterprises Ltd (SEL) and Management Investment and Trade (MIT) Ltd, apparently based in Switzerland but operating from a fashionable UK address in Mayfair, London. The company says it can produce letters of credit from a leading Swiss bank. Issued by MIT, the RFP describes a wind programme for development of 2400 MW by the close of 2000 in the Russian Federation and other countries in the former Soviet Union. The current RFP is for Phase 1, or the Pilot Phase, of the programme and represents 1% of the final total. The four "preliminary" sites have average wind speeds between 5.2 and 9.7 m/s. MIT and SEL state they have five years of experience in the former USSR, mainly in Russia. Although wind turbines and services for Phase 1 will be bought directly by the two companies, it is intended to start local manufacturing of components within two years, with 80% local input by 2000.