At the right time to attack the French market

After 18 months of development in the secret of its research centre Danish Vestas presented to Marseille the machine he announced as his boot secret to conquer the French market and territorial weakly fitted in wind. Packed with electronics, new materials and new blade architecture, the jewel of the number one global wind power aerodynamics will be able to record energy power of 3 megawatts (MW) from a breath of only 3 m/sec. (12 km) by scanning the surface of a football field in each round. Qualified of "air puller" by the press, this poetically called wind "V112-3. 0 MW" will be available in May 2010. At the right time to attack the French market. "With this product suitable for medium to low, majority in France, wind patterns we mean 30 at least of share of market", confirms CEO of Vestas France, Nicolas Wolff, just announce the opening of new offices in Paris "in the prospect of a reconciliation of the centres of decision."

Since the announcement of the French wind plan has exacerbated the appetite of the hunters of wind. "The France looks like the most promising market in Europe", analysis Arthouros Zervos, President of the influential Europaen Wind Energy Association, who has chosen to hold its annual Congress under the provençal mistral in mid-March. A symbol that has escaped any of 400 industry gathered for the occasion. The French site is huge: end of 2008, the country produced only 3.404 MW of wind power. Decided at the end of the Grenelle of the environment program plans to increase this capacity to 25,000 MW by 2020. To achieve this objective, the France will need to have installed a total on its 8,000 territory turbines. Indifferent A: EUR unit leads the opportunities this new eldorado do to any Boeing challengers GE Wind Energy, Gamesa, Enercon, Nordex or even EADS Astrium, which, in the company of Composites Aquitaine, should open wind close to Bordeaux blade manufacturing plant.

Race yields

To achieve this, a race fueled with big capital is committed on a bunch of technical parameters: power, production capacity, the reliability of the equipment. For example, Vestas agreed in 2008 almost EUR 120 million to research and more than 1 billion (about 6 billion turnover) at its plants in Europe, the United States and China. "These works have a purpose, explains Ditlev Engel, the President of Vestas: allow operators to get the most from their investment. In a few years, the range of wind turbines is considerably mounted range. Forgotten repeated failures. "The turbines are now very easy to maintain and guarantee commonly higher than 95 availability rate" indicates Arthouros Zervos. The engineers focuses on the production costs of energy. Using for example very sophisticated electronic converters, they seek to reduce the time needed to turbines to their operating level. Their work are interested in the performance of the machines, their adaptation to changes in wind regime, to their implementation. Follow the performance: the cost of production of the kilowatt-hour is in the best of cases around 6.5 to 7 Eurocent, so under the redemption price guaranteed France by EDF (8.2 c/KWh). But beware of unpleasant surprises: between two constructors, disparities may reach 20.

"Conquer the French eldorado is a way of cross", summarizes Eric Neumand, responsible for the development of projects for Nordex France, one of the precursors of the market. As much as the technical constraints come piggyback unique administrative difficulties on the continent. Noise, landscape, avifauna, urban planning, civil aviation, radar disruption... To obtain the permit to construct a wind turbine, one must sometimes convince authorities 20. Result: between the plans and the construction site, it flows often over four years.

Battle plans

"It is inconsistent with the objectives of the French plan, denounced André Antolini, President of the Union of renewable energy sources (RES).". "The archaism of the arguments advanced by the opponents of wind energy risk defeat green ambitions of a country whose opinion plebiscite to 70 renewable energy," it warns. Last misunderstanding dated: the attempt of the "anti" Ranger wind turbines in the category of facilities classified in the same way as a chemical plant for example. "If the project is voted by the parliamentarians, the objectives of the round table would be certainly compromised", prevents André Antolini.

The industry took the advance: already 4,000 MW for building permits have been issued on the territory. To convince, some groups are of real battle plans. In Nordex, Eric Neumand development team has some 20 people. Its mission is to convince: "once the site is located, should meet the concerns and a consensus with amount of actors: elected officials, owners, riparian, ecological associations, hunters...". We organize debates to defuse fears, produce expert reports and sometimes provide counterparties. "In his wallet, some 50 projects. For some, it took agree to replant trees, install a wireless relay, develop a hiking path, provide optical fibre in a village, or even to restore a church spire! The war of the wind is just beginning.