Rolls-Royce announced today at the Power-Gen Europe show in Milan that customers in eight countries had selected Trent 60 engines, including orders for three additional Trent 60 electrical generating sets from two existing customers in Belgium and Australia.

Energy companies in Hungary, the Czech Republic, the UK, Russia, the US and New Caledonia in the South Pacific Ocean have confirmed reservations for 27 Trent 60 engines. When all the reservations become firm contracts, the potential value of business at today’s list prices exceeds $500 million, including the orders from Belgium and Australia.

SPE in Belgium, which is currently installing two Trent 60-powered genset packages ordered in 2006 for its Ham power station near Ghent, has selected two additional Trent 60 wet low emissions (WLE) dual fuel machines for the Angleur power station, near Liège, Wallonia.

Babcock and Brown Power (previously Alinta Energy) in Australia has ordered a second Trent 60 dual-fuel unit to provide power for a remote iron ore mine operated by the Anglo-Australian mining company, BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company, at the Newman mining township in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

Two US power project development companies have reserved 18 Trent 60 WLE dual fuel engines for new power generation projects they will be undertaking in the north-eastern part of the country.

The largest single number of engine reservations – ten in total – is from an energy company based in Baltimore, for which final installation locations have not yet been released. An East Coast energy marketer has specified eight engines.

Reservations for the remaining nine engines are from electrical utilities and power project companies in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Russia. These would be the first Trent units for Central Europe – the UK and the French territory of New Caledonia in the South Pacific.

Charlie Athanasia, vice-president of power generation for the Rolls-Royce energy business, said: “These worldwide customers have expressed their interest in the Trent because of its high simple cycle efficiency and power density. This translates into lower operating and installation costs, thus enhancing to total life cycle value to our customers.

“We have now sold or received reservations for Trent units to operators in 17 countries. The Trent 60 not only provides the extra power valued by our customers, but its lower emissions levels will benefit the environment.”

Customers in Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Qatar and Sharjah have also ordered Trent power packages.

The Trent 60 engine has been developed for power generation and mechanical drive applications from the three-shaft Trent 800 aero engine, which produces up to 95,000lb thrust. It draws on the experience of more than 11 million hours of commercial airline operation, accumulated by nearly 450 Trent 800 engines, and by over 26 million hours achieved by all versions of the Trent aero engine.