Shortly after dedicating its new wind turbine manufacturing plant in Jonesboro, Arkansas (see Q&A in this issue), Nordex USA secured an order for a 75 MW project using N100 wind turbines from EverPower Wind Holdings, Inc. The contract includes a five-year premium maintenance and service agreement as well as the delivery, commissioning, and testing of the turbines. This is the second time EverPower has selected Nordex.
In 2009, EverPower installed 25 Nordex N90 2.5 MW high-speed wind turbines at its Highland Wind Farm, a 62.5 Megawatt project located in Cambria County, Pennsylvania. At the time it was Nordex’ largest American wind project, and the first wind farm in the country using turbine generators that large. EverPower currently has advanced stage projects in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Washington totaling 600 megawatts of capacity targeted for construction within the next three years. “We are extremely pleased to be building on a solid performance record with EverPower,” says Ralf Sigrist, president and CEO of Nordex USA. “Our partnership proves that superior turbine technology makes wind power a competitive alternative to traditional fuels and can help secure the nation’s electricity supply.”
EverPower Wind Holdings develops, owns, and operates utility-grade wind farms and sells clean electricity generated from its farms to local utilities, which purchase this electricity for resale to individual consumers and businesses. The company has offices in New York, Pittsburgh, Portland, Oregon, and Bellefontaine, Ohio, and it is currently progressing wind farm projects in several states. EverPower is owned by its employees and the private equity firm Terra Firm, which has a range of institutional investors with the largest proportion being U.S.-based.
“We are very pleased with the possibility of installing Nordex turbines,” says Jim Spencer, president and CEO of EverPower Wind Holdings. “We have been impressed with the performance and reliability of the turbines installed at the Highland Wind Farm and from previous experience expect that Nordex’ next generation of turbines will have at minimum a 97 percent availability rate. We are also very excited to be the first developer to install turbines manufactured at Nordex’ new Arkansas plant. It reinforces what we have been saying—wind farms create American jobs.”
Currently Nordex’ largest U.S. order to date—150 Megawatts/60 turbines—is being installed at BP Wind Energy’s Cedar Creek wind farm in Colorado. For more information visit www.nordex-online.com.
