REpower UK is one of the UK’s fastest growing wind turbine manufacturers, with a 12.3% share of the total wind power market in 2009, and a projected 15-20% market share by the end of 2010. The company has now installed enough turbines in the UK to power over 300,000 homes, or a city the size of Leeds.
Over 300 MW of the company's total power output are produced via onshore and offshore wind farms across England and Wales, including recent installations for E.ON at Butterwick and Haswell Moor in County Durham and Great Eppleton in Sunderland, as well as a major project for EDF Energy at Rusholme in North Yorkshire.
The remaining 200 MW are produced in Scotland, including Longpark, Fairburn and Achany wind farms, all completed in the last 18 months. New projects on the horizon include the Ormonde offshore wind farm, 10km off Barrow-in-Furness, consisting of thirty 5-MW turbines.
“This is an historic milestone for REpower UK, and demonstrates how far we’ve come since our first wind turbine was installed in 2005. We are committed to developing our market share and installed base in the burgeoning UK wind power sector, generating further employment and economic stimulus in the coming years,” comments Rick Eggleston, Managing Director of REpower UK.
Over 5 GW installed
The rapid growth of REpower UK is indicative of the surge of wind power generation in the UK. The renewables trade association, RenewableUK, has revealed that the UK now has 5.1 GW of wind energy generating capacity installed, after the 300-MW Thanet offshore wind farm came on-stream in September. This landmark has also been reached following the expansion of Fred Olsen Renewables' 200MW Crystal Rig onshore wind farm in the Scottish Borders earlier this month.
According to RenewableUK, the total number of utility scale wind turbines in the UK now stands at 3,076, counting both onshore and offshore, with 2,640 onshore turbines and 436 offshore.
In practical terms, this means that wind will provide just over 4% of the UK's total electricity consumption, with other renewables providing around 5%.
Eariler this year, REpower Systems AG unveiled a new turbine designed specifically for the UK market. The UK-specific product is the REpower 3.4M104 (3.4 MW rated output) with a rotor diameter of 104 metres and a 93-metre tower. This meets the 145-metre maximum height in planning terms and it is designed for class as IEC1b, making it suited to the windier conditions in the UK and in particular, Scotland. These turbines are already being actively sold in the UK market with the first installations expected in summer of 2011.
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