Eviag's production works is being built at Duisburg, a port on the river Rhine in Germany's Ruhr industrial heartland. Production is scheduled to begin in July 2009. According to König, five turbines will be delivered to Poland and 15 to France later that year, followed by 12 to Poland and 58 to France in 2010. The company hopes to have reached its annual target capacity of 200 machines a year by 2011. For a newcomer, getting components is not easy, and purchase conditions are not the best for Eviag, admits König, but the ramp-up for the new machine should be quick because it is well tested and ripe for the market, he insists.
Stinag Stuttgart Invest, the German investment firm that holds a 27.5% share in Eviag, says the company's target markets are "the most important growth markets in Europe, North Africa and North America." Fuhrländer is already building a factory to produce the 2.5 MW machines in Montana, but has said the US market is big enough for licensed production by others too (Windpower Monthly, May 2008).
Partnership
Eviag's strategic partner in the new venture is wind developer EuroCape, with which Stinag set up a joint venture in July. The venture plans to initially develop wind farms in France, Poland, Italy, Greece and Ukraine. EuroCape may take a share in Eviag at a later stage, says König.
Fuhrländer has recently begun output of the 2.5 MW unit at its own new factory in Waigandshain, Germany, and production under licence is being started by Lorax Energy Systems in Montana, United States, and Liaoning GaoKe Energy Group in Shenyang, in the Chinese province of Liaoning. Over the next few years, global production of the 2.5 MW machines is forecast to grow to over 2 GW a year.
