Ecotècnia, 1987-2007 Ecotècnia was a manufacturer and installer of wind turbines established in 1981, headquartered in
Barcelona, Spain. In 1999 it became part of the Basque-based cooperative
Mondragon Corporation. The company's first wind generator was a 30 kW machine, developed by 1984 with funding assistance from the Spanish Science Ministry. In 1991 the company developed a 150 kW machine, and in 1992 won its first commercial project - for fifty 150 kW turbines at
Tarifa, Spain. The particular demands of installing wind turbines in mountainous regions in Spain which included poor road access and blustery (high
turbulence) conditions led to specific design features of Ecotècnia's turbines - including a modular construction of the turbine (three components: rotor and shaft; mainframe and yaw system; and the drive train - each less than 30t), as well as isolation of the gearbox from the main drive, reducing non-torque gearbox loads. and class IIIA
ECO80, three blade turbine models; In 2005 the company's estimate world market share (by installed capacity) was 2.1%. In mid 2007
Alstom acquired Ecotècnia for 350 million
euro. By late 2007 the company employed over 800 people, with sales of approximately €400 million pa., and operated wind turbine assembly plants in
Somozas and
Buñuel, other sites at
Rio del Pozo (control panels) and
Coreses (tower manufacturing). The company also manufactured small scale autonomous energy systems for isolated locations (tradename 'CICLOPS') comprising windgenerator (10 kW), photovoltaic solar source (2 to 10 kW), generator, battery and
inverter, and was active in small scale photovoltaic cell installation (factory
Pla de Santa Maria.
Alstom Wind, 2007-2015 The first
ECO100 3 MW wind turbine was formally inaugurated at the Vieux Moulin wind farm (
Pithiviers, Paris, France) 1 October 2009. The company was renamed
Alstom Wind S.L. in April 2010. In 2010 Alstom began construction of a turbine nacelle factory in
Amarillo, USA, completed in mid 2011. In November 2011 a 300MW per year capacity manufacturing plant in
Camaçari near
Salvador, Bahia, Brazil was formally opened. In March 2012 a prototype of Alstom Haliade 150 6 MW offshore turbine was formally inaugurated; the turbine was developed for large scale offshore wind projects off the French coast; in January 2011 Alstom joined a consortium led by
EDF Energies Nouvelles as turbine supplier (also including
DONG Energy,
Nass & Wind,
WPD Offshore) to bid for proposed offshore wind farms in France of 6GW capacity. The
Haliade 150 turbine was a development of the previous mechanically isolated transmission designs developed by Ecotècnia; the gearbox driven electrically generator was omitted and replaced with a gearless direct drive permanent magnet synchronous generator designed for higher efficiency and greater reliability with fewer moving parts. The turbine uses 73.5m turbine blades from
LM Wind Power. In April 2012 the French state awarded an
EDF/
DONG Energy/
Alstom consortium three contracts for offshore wind farms (
Saint-Nazaire,
Calvados/Courseulles-sur-Mer,
Fécamp.) off the northwestern coast of France of total power 1.4 GW. As a result, Alstom confirmed that it would be constructing wind turbine factories at
Cherbourg-en-Cotentin (Turbine blades in association with
LM Power, wind turbine towers), and at
Saint-Nazaire (Nacelles and generators) in the
Montoir-de-Bretagne port area. A 6 MW Haliade turbine began generating electricity in July 2012 during certification testing. The turbine's electrical generator was supplied by partner company,
General Electric subsidiary GE Power Conversion (
Converteam), who were also expected to establish a production plant in Saint Nazaire. In late 2012 Alstom announced the intention to construct a wind turbine tower manufacturing facility in
Canoas,
Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, on a site adjacent to an established Alstom power transmission factory. The plant was officially inaugurated in August 2013. In February 2013 the company announced the cut of 35% of its workforce in Spain, due to a collapse in the Spanish wind market because of a change to governmental support for wind developments. The facilities at Somozas, Galicia (electrical equipment), and Zamora, Castille and Leon region (towers) were to close with electrical equipment production moved to the plant at Buñuel, Navarra. Total job losses were later reduced from 373 to 265. A Haliade 150 turbine was installed at the
Belwind wind farm in November 2013 for operational tests, at the time being one of the largest operational wind turbines in the world. In December 2014 the St. Nazaire nacelle and generator assembly factory was officially opened. In early 2015 a wind turbine tower factory was opened in
Jacobina,
Bahia, Brazil; constructed as a joint venture (51%/49%) between
Andrade Gutierrez and Alstom. Initial orders for the company's Haliade wind turbine included 5 units for the
Block Island Wind Farm (USA, March 2015); and 66 units for
DEME for the
Merkur offshore wind farm (Germany, July 2015). In November 2015 most of Alstom's energy generation and transmission assets were bought by
General Electric. The combined business under GE was named
GE Power. The two parties also created three joint ventures, among them a hydro and offshore renewable business unit.
GE Power (offshore wind) (2016–) In February 2016 the first of a series production of 300 permanent magnet wind generators was completed at the
St. Nazaire factory. A long planned test period for the 6MW Haliade is expected to start in Spring 2016 at
Østerild Wind Turbine Test Field. ==Notes==