The Nordex Group has received an order to raise the yield of a total of 63 existing multi-megawatt turbines from its customer ERG SpA in Italy. The operator plans to equip three wind farms with the performance-enhancing “Xtended Power” technology. In principle, an increase in yield of up to two percent can be obtained using this product package. This is achieved by a combination of optimised pitch control and a more intelligent turbine control system. Nordex has offered the Xtended Power package for N80/2500, N90/2500 and N90/2300 turbines since autumn 2016.
The “Fossa del Lupo” and “Amaroni” wind farms are situated in the region of Catanzaro and have been in operation for a good five years. The third project, “Vicari”, is in Sicily and has been feeding green electricity into the Italian grid for nine years. The N90/2500 is in use in all three cases and these turbines have been initially serviced by the manufacturer since their installation and actually fully operated by Erg. “It’s important for Erg to have a good cooperation with the manufacturer and in Italy, we can say that the objective has been achieved through an effective solution for turbines production optimisation”, says Andrea Gaspari, Country Manager Italy ERG Power Generation SpA. The Xtended-Power technology for increased yield is included as a standard in the newer turbines from Nordex.
The Nordex Group has installed wind power capacity of more than 21 GW in over 25 markets, generating sales of EUR 3.4 billion in 2016. It currently has roughly 5,000 employees. The production network comprises plants in Germany, Spain, Brazil, the United States and India. The product range primarily concentrates on onshore turbines in the 1.5 – 3.9 MW class addressing the requirements of developed as well as emerging markets.
ERG SpA is a leading IPP (Independent Power Producer) from renewable energy sources. The company is the first wind power operator in Italy and in the top ten in Europe. ERG has an overall installed capacity of 2,728 MW, including around 1,720 MW of wind power, 527 MW of hydroelectric power and 480 MW of natural gas. The wind installed capacity is mainly concentrated in Italy (1.094 MW), but with a significant and rising presence also abroad, in particular in France (252 MW), Germany (168 MW), Poland (82 MW), Romania (70 MW), Bulgaria (54 MW), as well as 48 MW under construction in United Kingdom.