Vestas wins wind energy deal for three Canadian wind power projects

TransAlta Renewables Inc. renews service agreements with Vestas for 204 MW of capacity in Fort MacLeod – Pincher Creek area of Alberta.

Vestas has received a seven-year agreement to service the Ardenville, Blue Trail and Summerview II wind projects.  Located in the Fort MacLeod and Pincher Creek areas of Alberta, the three facilities total 68 V90-3.0 MW turbines. Vestas has serviced these projects since their initial operation in 2009 and 2010.  This agreement extends Vestas’ commitment to the projects through 2021.

The projects are owned by TransAlta Renewables, a division of TransAlta, a power generator and marketer of wholesale electricity with operations in Canada, the United States and Australia.

Vestas will deliver its comprehensive, full-scope AOM 5000 service package.  AOM 5000 is an energy-based availability guarantee that ensures the turbines are operational when the wind is blowing.

“By bundling together the service arrangements for these three projects, we can find synergies and efficiencies that allow us to lower the projects’ lifetime cost of operations,” says Chris Brown, President of Vestas’ sales and service division in the United States and Canada. “All together, TransAlta has more than 750 MW of Vestas turbines installed, and we’re very happy to continue our work with TransAlta on this new basis.”

Since 1979, Vestas has supplied more than 52,000 wind turbines and over 62 GW in 73 countries – 52 percent more than its closest competitor. Vestas entered the U.S. market in 1981, selling its first wind turbine for a project in California. Since then, the company has delivered 12,667 turbines to the United States and 1,616 to Canada. Combined, Vestas’ installed capacity is 14,325 MW in 28 U.S. states and every Canadian province – enough to power about four million households. Of that, Vestas over 3 GW is installed in Canada.  Vestas employs about 17,500 people worldwide including about 2,500 throughout the United States and Canada at service and construction sites, sales offices, and at four manufacturing facilities in Colorado. Vestas’ U.S. and Canadian sales and service headquarters is in Portland, Oregon.