GE Renewable Energy has announced that it has been selected by Sanko Enerji to provide 12 Cypress units and 2 units of 3 MW for the 70 MW Guney wind farm in Turkey.
The wind farm will produce enough clean energy to power the equivalent 71,000 homes, save about 200,000 tons of CO2 and support Turkey’s renewable energy ambition to power two third of the country with renewable energy.
Located in Bursa, the construction and commercial operation of the wind farm is planned to be in the last quarter of 2020. GE’s scope of work will also include 10-year services agreements.
Guney is the second onshore wind project Sanko Enerji and GE Renewable Energy will be building together.
This marks the third order in Turkey for GE’s Cypress platform, the company’s largest onshore wind turbine in the field, and adds up to the 1.2 GW of wind energy installed base and 500 wind turbines GE already built in Turkey.
Turkey represents one of GE’s biggest sources of orders for the Cypress onshore wind platform, accumulating 255 MW to date.
The Cypress technology is a good fit for wind energy projects and for the Turkish landscape. It enables significant Annual Energy Production improvements, increased efficiency in serviceability, improved logistics and siting potential, and ultimately more value for customers.
The two-piece blade design enables blades to be manufactured at even longer lengths and improving logistics to drive costs down and offer more siting options, in locations that were previously inaccessible.
Manar Al-Moneef, President & CEO, Onshore Wind, Middle East, North Africa & Turkey, said: “There is a tremendous potential in Turkey to reach ambitious wind energy targets, and we are delighted to be partnering once again with Sanko Enerji to generate more renewable energy for the country but also to help driving the cost of wind energy down through innovative technologies ”.
GE Renewable Energy will locally produce the revolutionary two-pieces wind turbine blades in its LM Wind Power’s Bergama site, Izmir, Turkey, where GE has more than 550 employees.
At the end of April 2019, the site decided to invest another $30 million to hire 300 new employees and build an extension, in order to set-up the site to produce this new two-pieces blade, set to be assembled to GE’s Cypress turbine. Towers will also be produced in the country.