French firm Alstom has opened a new wind turbine manufacturing facility in Brazil in a joint venture with Latin American infrastructure group Andrade Gutierrez.
The Torres Eolicas do Nordeste plant at Jacobina in Bahia has an estimated value of €30m. It has a capacity to manufacture up to 200 wind turbine steel towers annually.
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Forty-nine per cent of the project is owned by Alstom, with Andrade Gutierrez owning the remaining 51% stake.
The unit covers a built-up area of 22,000m² on a 140,000m² plot, which is next to the chief existing and upcoming wind projects in the region.
Once operational, the manufacturing facility is expected to employ 250 people and create 600 indirect jobs.
Alstom Wind business senior vice-president Yves Rannou said: "Brazil should enter in the ranking of the largest wind power producers in the world very soon.
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By GlobalData"It is particularly gratifying for Alstom to open this new plant in Brazil and contribute to this growth."
The wind equipment manufacturing unit is a third for Alstom in Latin America, it said.
Its first wind unit for manufacturing nacelles was inaugurated in 2011 in Bahia. The second was in Rio Grande do Sul, manufacturing towers for Brazil’s south market and neighbouring countries, including Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. These began operations in 2013.
More than 3,000 wind turbines have been deployed by the French manufacturer in 200 wind farms worldwide, having a combined power generation capacity of 5.8GW.
Image: Torres Eolicas do Nordeste plant in Brazil will manufacture up to 200 wind turbine steel towers annually. Photo: courtesy of Alstom.
