Turbine company Fuhrländer building new production factory in Germany

Spurred on by strong demand world-wide for multi megawatt machines, small German wind turbine company Fuhrländer is building a new works large enough for production of its 2.5 MW turbine, a machine developed in co-operation with engineering company Wind to Energy. The new factory is located close to Fuhrländer's headquarters in Waigandshain in the Westerwald region. The company offers turbines rated at 30 kW, 100 kW, 250 kW, 600 kW, 1 MW, 1.25 MW and 1.5 MW. Production of the 2.5 MW will begin from summer 2008. The company can turn out about 15 of the machine a month. Fuhrländer has orders for around 250, 2.5 MW turbines over the next two years, says Walter Lutz, who provides marketing and communication services for the company. With competitor Repower dropping production of its 1.5 MW turbines, Fuhrländer expects orders for its version of the same design to pick up. The company is preparing for a potential order influx from Brazil, the US and China. It has signed a contract with China's Baoding Propeller Manufactory (BPM) for supply of various sizes of rotor blades and its Brazilian subsidiary has formed a joint venture with BPM for potential production of 34 metre blades, to be later followed by 47 metre for the 2.5 MW machine. The blade factory would be sited close to a planned Fuhrländer production plant in Ceara, which may proceed soon. BPM produces the Fuhrländer 1 MW machine in China under licence. Fuhrländer has also signed a preliminary contact with Indian company EMCO with a view to production of the 1.5 MW machine under a licence restricted to India.