Windey eyes 'new starting point' with Bolivian wind turbine deal
Windey eyes 'new starting point' with Bolivian wind turbine deal | Windpower Monthly
Chinese manufacturer Windey has sealed a contract to supply turbines for the 45MW Warnes II onshore wind farm in Bolivia – which Windpower Monthly understands is the company's first project in South America.
It is due to supply ten of Windey’s WD156-4.5MW turbines, which include hub heights of between 95 and 165 metres.
Windey has started shipping its turbines from Jiangsu province in the north-east of China – claiming it will be “the furthest distance by far” that it has transported its turbines.
Warnes II is being developed by the Bolivian state electricity company Empresa Nacional de Electricidad (ENDE) and is due online later this year, according to Windpower Intelligence, the research and data division of Windpower Monthly. It is set to be the first South American wind farm to feature Windey turbines, according to Windpower Intelligence, while the Chinese manufacturer described the project as a "new starting point".
Chinese manufacturers rely heavily on their home market, with 98% of all of their capacity additions in 2023 coming in China itself, according to BloombergNEF. But they are increasingly looking beyond, the analysis firm noted.
The Warnes II wind farm is located in the Santa Cruz department in the east of Bolivia and has the potential to generate 150GWh of electricity per year, Windey claimed.
Bolivia's energy mix is currently dominated by fossil fuels, and the country has 135MW of installed wind capacity, according to Windpower Intelligence.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.