Siemens Secures First Wind Turbine Order in Africa

As part of its globalisation strategy Siemens Energy has announced that it will establish three regional Wind Power Business Units for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), The Americas and Asia as part of a new Wind Power Division.

Following this it has just recently secured its first wind turbine order in Africa. The order consists of two separate wind farms in Morocco, each featuring 22 SWT-2.3-101 wind turbines producing an output of 50 MW; in total a 100 MW order.

The Haouma wind farm will be built around 30km east of Tangier, six kilometres south of the Mediterranean coast. Whilst the Foum El Oued plant will be built in the notoriously windy municipality of Laâyoune, 9km southeast of the port of Laâyoune in southern Morocco.

The order for the wind farms consists of delivery, installation, and commissioning of the turbines, as well as a five year service contract. Both sites are expected to commence production by the summer of 2013.

"These two orders mark Siemens Wind Power´s entry on the African wind market and clearly show that our internationalization strategy is successful," said Felix Ferlemann, CEO of the Siemens Wind Power Division.

Africa is an emerging wind market with Morocco currently being number two in installations. It is a large country that has been touted by the Global Wind Energy Council as holding promising potential for wind power.

The Moroccan government has recently invited bidders to develop an extra 850 MW worth of wind power projects, a significant step on its path to a planned 2GW of capacity. All part of its drive to reach the government set target of having renewable energy contribute 20 percent of national electricity consumption by 2020.

By. James Burgess of Oilprice.com