POWER GIANT BUILDS TEX WIND PLANT

Alstom Outlines Plans for North American Wind Turbine Assembly Facility
May 25, 2010 (PR Newswire)

"Alstom, a global leader in power generation…[announced] the opening of a wind turbine assembly facility that will create 275 full-time engineering, production, and technical support jobs in Amarillo, Texas…

"…The [115,000 square foot] Amarillo facility will assemble the "nacelles"—i.e., the generator, gearbox, and control systems that make up a wind turbine. The nacelles will be transported from Amarillo to sites where they will be installed together with blades and towers to create the complete wind turbine generators. Alstom will offer its North American customers a product that includes any combination of the complete unit and the engineering, design, construction, and maintenance of the facility."

Schematic of the Alstom nacelle (click to enlarge)

"In particular, Alstom's offering includes the ECO 80/86 wind turbine platform (1.67 MW) and the ECO 100/110 wind turbine platform (3 MW) to accommodate the differing wind regimes across North America. All of Alstom's wind power offerings feature the ALSTOM PURE TORQUE™ design. ALSTOM PURE TORQUE™ is a unique rotor support concept protecting the gearbox and other drive train components from deflection loads, delivering higher gearbox reliability, higher operational availability, and lower maintenance costs…

"Alstom has almost 30 years of experience in the wind power market with over 2,200 megawatts and 1,850 wind turbines in operation, primarily in Europe. Alstom's investment in Amarillo builds on the company's existing presence in the North America, where the company has 6,000 employees, multiple manufacturing sites, and a significant investment in other clean power solutions such as hydro, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), nuclear, and energy efficiency."