Leeward Renewable Energy and Deutsche Windtechnik have signed a service contract comprised of 564 WTGs.
The deal includes almost half of all Mitsubishi 1000 and Mitsubishi 1000A wind turbines installed in the United States. The turbines are located in five Leeward wind farms: Caprock and Aragonne Mesa (New Mexico), Buena Vista (California), Sweetwater (Texas) and Cedar Creek (Colorado).
Sweetwater and Cedar Creek are the largest of the five locations with a capacity of 336 MW.
“These new agreements are an important milestone for our U.S. business unit as we continue to expand our service into new states. At the same time, we are delighted to be entrusted with a new wind turbine technology on such a large scale.” Jason Allen, Interim CEO at Leeward Renewable Energy said: “At Leeward, we are committed to achieving the highest levels of safety, reliability and performance at our wind farms and value a strong partner, like Deutsche Windtechnik, to help us achieve these goals. We look forward to expanding our relationship and working together to lower the cost of energy by enhancing the performance of our assets.”
Melf Lorenzen, CEO of Deutsche Windtechnik.
The operator and the independent service provider have been working together for some time now. Deutsche Windtechnik and Leeward Renewable Energy signed a service agreement for 81 Siemens 2.3 turbines in Texas in 2019.
Before the contract for operation and maintenance (O&M) of these sites was awarded in May 2020, the team of specialists of Deutsche Windtechnik successfully carried out a series of borescope inspections on the main bearings of seven Mitsubishi 1000 turbines.
The time-sensitive service request was completed on schedule, considering the demanding circumstances of the COVID19-pandemic.
Over a duration of two months, Deutsche Windtechnik will assume responsibility for the sites step by step. Sweetwater 4A will be first in line in Texas at the beginning of October.
The contract would enable an immense growth for Deutsche Windtechnik in the U.S., including new service offices, a larger stock of equipment and service vehicles and more than 115 additional employees.
Most of these will be technical positions, but there will also be some management and management positions for operations. In order to ensure the sustainability of each of the projects, the service infrastructure for the five wind farms will be further built and extended in close cooperation with Leeward Renewable Energy.
“We always evaluate incoming requests thoroughly together with the customer until we have addressed all potential challenges and obstacles ahead of time. This is a key element for our success and enables us to consistently deliver the best solution for our customers.”
Matthias Brandt, director of Deutsche Windtechnik.
