Siemens Canada has completed the 1,000th blade at Siemens’ wind turbine blade manufacturing facility in Tillsonburg, Ontario.
All Siemens wind turbine blades in Canada are manufactured at the Tillsonburg facility, the largest turbine supplier in the Ontario market for 2014.
The plant manufactures 49-metre blades for the SWT-2.3-101 geared platform and 55-metre blades for the SWT-3.2-113 direct-drive platform.
The production of 1,000 blades generates enough electricity to power more than 230,000 Ontario homes per year.
Tillsonburg’s first blade has been used for various wind projects in and around Ontario and Canada including the South Kent Wind project in Chatham -Kent, one of Canada’s largest wind farms.
The achievement is part of a Green Energy Investment Agreement (GEIA) made between Samsung Renewable Energy (Samsung) and the Ontario Government.
This agreement advocates creation of more green manufacturing jobs in the region, in exchange of government’s investment in new transmission capacity.
This milestone also displays the evolution of Green Energy Act, a provincial policy which underscores Ontario’s commitment to economic growth and environmental sustainability.
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Siemens Canada has so far installed 1,600-MW of capacity to the wind portfolio of Ontario market, contributing to more than half of the 1.9 gigawatts of new capacity installed.
Siemens has also supplied, delivered and commissioned turbines for various Samsung and Pattern Development wind projects in Ontario.
This includes the recently completed 150-MW Grand Renewable Wind project in the County of Haldimand, the 270-MW K2 Wind project currently under construction in Goderich , and Armow Wind project, currently under construction in the Township of Kincardine.
The Canadian wind energy market is growing at a rapid rate and is now the ninth largest in the world, with a current installed capacity of approximately 9,700-MW.
Sabeena Wahid
editor@greentechlead.com