Greentech Lead Europe: GE announced it is powering CEZ
Group’s 600-megawatt Fantanele/Cogealac wind park, Europe’s largest onshore
wind project.
The project is in full operation and is producing enough
cleaner energy to power more than one million Romanian households each year.
The project utilizes 240 GE 2.5-megawatt wind turbines, including
the 1,000th2.5-megawatt (MW) class machine installed by GE worldwide.
The final wind turbine for Fantanele/Cogealac was connected to the regional
grid in late November. The new wind park is located in Dobrogea, Constanta
County, Romania, which is one of the most promising wind power regions in the
country. The project owner, CEZ Romania, is part of CEZ Group, the largest
utility in Central Europe.
With Fantanele/Cogealac wind farm, CEZ is creating a major contribution to
increasing Romania’s renewable energy generation. Before this project,
Romania’s installed wind capacity was only 14 megawatts.
The individual wind turbine components for the Fantanele/Cogealac wind farm
were produced all over the world. The turbine nacelles were supplied from GE’s
facility in Salzbergen, Germany. The rotor blades and towers came from Germany,
Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Poland and China.
“Detailed planning, clear processes and a lot of
dedication ensured that the project was completed on time,” said Stephan
Ritter, GE’s general manager for renewable energy in Europe. “We were able to
feed the experience we gained during the construction phase straight back into
the project. We are very proud of the outstanding achievement of our project
team.”
Earlier this year, GE announced its fleet of 2.5 MW series wind
turbines had surpassed 2 gigawatts of installed capacity worldwide, enough
cleaner electricity to power approximately 1.4 million European households.
Today, these machines are operating in 19 countries worldwide, including 14
countries in Europe, and have achieved more than 7 million hours of commercial
operation.