Swedish Morphic buys into Norwegian ScanWind

Sweden's Morphic Technologies has taken a third step into the wind industry with its purchase of an 80% stake in Norwegian turbine manufacturer ScanWind for EUR 23.5 million. The remaining 20% is retained by former owner Nord-Trøndelag Elektrisitetsverk (NTE). Morphic's involvement in the sector to date has been as tower supplier for Finnish WinWind turbines through its DynaWind subsidiary. Earlier this year it also agreed to market 2 MW and 2.5 MW turbines in Scandinavia and the Baltic countries made by Kenersys, an Indian start-up with strong German links (Windpower Monthly, May 2008). The ScanWind technology has been developed over a number of years, but it unknown outside Norway. Just four ScanWind 3 MW machines and 11, 3.5 MW turbines are turning so far, all of them at NTE's Hundhammerfjellet wind plant in Norway. Morphic, however, says it has great faith in ScanWind's direct-drive concept. Believing that wind turbines without troublesome gearboxes are the best option offshore, Morphic and Swedish utility Vattenfall have agreed to develop a tough, offshore-ready ScanWind turbine. Vattenfall, which is developing projects requiring 1500 turbines, wants to help drive down the cost of offshore wind power. The deal with Morphic is purely for technical support. ScanWind turbine production will continue in Trondheim, Norway. Morphic, meanwhile, will continue to supply towers to WinWind. Its most recent order is for ten towers for 3 MW WinWind turbines going up at Uljabuouda in northern Sweden.