Estonian wind turbine maker Eleon has signed an agreement with China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) to set up a joint venture that will make turbines for the offshore wind market.
Eleon China will start building a turbine factory this summer that will make turbines based on Eleon’s technology in the 10-12MW capacity range, Eleon chief executive Oleg Sonajalg told reNEWS.
It will also make turbines for the onshore wind market, with a minimum capacity of 3.4MW, he added.
The turbine factory will be built near a small town, called Nimbo, near Shanghai and will enter production in 2021, said Sonajalg.
A “key figure” at Eleon China will be Kim Kronborg Christiansen, who served as vice president of Vestas from 2007 to 2013.
Kronborg Christiansen said the international competitiveness of Eleon’s technology is “very promising”.
CSSC subsidiary Haizhuang Windpower has manufactured wind turbines and invested in wind farms since 2004.
Enterprise Estonia’s Asia Center played a “key advisory role” in bringing together the Chinese company and the Estonian developer of offshore wind turbines.
Asia Center China expert Rafael Jimenez said: “Eleon’s cooperation project demonstrates the ability of Estonian businesses to be competitive on the global market and play an important role in the fields of innovation and renewable energy.”
“With its compact and enclosed generator design, Eleon’s direct drive technology is something special, and the result of which is apparently the lowest wind turbine mass to capacity ratio in the world,” Kronborg Christansen added.
Eleon chairman and CEO Oleg Sonajalg said that Eleon and CSSC had held “lengthy and fruitful” negotiations in recent months, and signed the agreement on 8 June.
“This cooperation will allow for Eleon’s innovative technology to be brought to the world’s biggest energy market together with a very strong cooperation partner,” Sonajalg said.
Eleon, set up in 2007, has developed and manufactures multi-megawatt class wind turbines, for both onshore and offshore wind markets.
CSSC is the world’s biggest shipbuilding company.
Haizhuang Windpower is planning to manufacture 2000 wind turbines this year.