GE announced it will supply Toto Costruzioni with eight GE 2.85-103 wind turbines for a wind farm in the Puglia region of Italy.
The wind farm, operated by Ponte Albanito, is owned 70 percent by Renexia S.p.A. (a Toto Holding company) and 30 percent by Banco Santander as minority stakeholder.
The project marks the first time GE 2.85-megawatt (MW) wind turbines will be used in Italy and will be the sixth wind farm in Puglia to use GE machines.
This is the inaugural wind farm for Renexia and Toto Costruzioni. The project was awarded to Toto Costruzioni under the new Italian wind auction system for assignment of incentive tariff.
The company selected GE’s 2.85-103 wind turbines as they found them best suited for the site conditions in Ponte Albanito and were the most economical and efficient in the industry.
The new wind farm will provide 22.8 MW of power to the grid, which would be equivalent to the required energy needs of approximately 15,000 homes in the region.
For GE, this is the debut of its 2.85 wind turbine in Italy. Featuring 103-meter rotor, the wind turbine captures more energy with ultra-quiet power production.
The wind farm will benefit from around-the-clock remote monitoring and diagnostics through GE’s global wind monitoring center in Salzbergen, Germany, which monitors wind turbines in Europe and Asia 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
As a member of the European Union (EU), Italy is required to meet the EU 20/20 target of having 20 percent renewable energy generation by the year 2020. To achieve these goals, Italy will be installing 560 MW of new wind generation capacity per year through 2020.
Renexia is responsible for the development, design and planning, construction and management of renewable energy plants in order to exploit this source.