Goldwind implements its first wind energy project in Italy

Goldwind’s Alcamo II wind farm in Italy has been completed. This is the first global cooperation project between Goldwind and RWE (Rhein Energy Group), which will provide Italian Sofidel Group with green and clean energy.

Thanks to Goldwind’s rich experience in international projects, Alcamo II was completed on schedule with high standards under the circumstances of the limited hoisting site and the epidemic and other factors, and was highly recognized by the project owner.

High standard winning customer’s appreciation

The Alcamo II project is located in Sicily, Italy, and is equipped with four GW136-3.4MW wind turbines with a total installed capacity of 13.6MW. The project owner–RWE, is headquartered in Essen, Germany. It is not only the largest energy company but also the largest power generation company in Germany, and one of the three giant energy companies in Europe. Its global renewable energy installed capacity has exceeded 9GW.

After a systematic due diligence investigation on Goldwind’s product design concept, R&D process, technical level, quality management, HSE management, human resource management, environmental management, manufacturing management, supply chain management, etc., RWE selected Goldwind as its global qualified supplier. In the process of delivering the products, Goldwind delivered more than 200 English documents simultaneously, helping RWE and subcontractor partners to ensure the unbiased delivery of the entire project under the guidance of the documents and manuals.

Meeting terrain challenges and overcoming the impact of the pandemic

Goldwind’s delivery in the project includes the complete turbines, sea transportation, inland transportation to the site and hoisting. The Alcamo II site is about 9 kilometers away from the northern coastline of Italy, which is a hilly terrain. Limited by the local geography conditions, the space on site is very limited. Each unit is required to be hoisted soon after arrival, which is the first time in Goldwind’s overseas projects.

This requires high standards for construction schedule management, if the transportation is slower than hoisting, the on-site operation will be lagged, which will greatly increase the cost of the project; if the transportation is faster, with too many machines on site, the construction progress will be affected.

Goldwind completed the whole hoisting process depending on seamless connection between transportation and hoisting and precise schedule management. Even though the whole hoisting process was during the epidemic, Goldwind did its best to overcome the difficulties and made sure the delivery was on time.

Goldwind’s excellent technology and management level won a letter of thanks from RWE, praising for its tremendous efforts in project cooperation and its technical support from transportation to hoisting. “Especially during the epidemic, the close cooperation and strong support of Goldwind left a deep impression on us.”

Supporting customer’s targets of emission reduction and environmental protection

With the implementation of the Alcamo II project, RWE and Sofidel Group, the second largest paper company in Europe, also signed a green power purchase agreement (PPA) for nearly 10 years. The project will provide Sofidel Group with 26GWh of green and clean power energy per year, helping Sofidel Group achieve its goals of sustainable development and carbon emission reduction.

The Italian market is one of RWE’s traditional core markets, and the landing of the Alcamo II project has also increased RWE’s Italian wind power installed capacity to a total of 442MW. RWE is expected to exceed 13GW on installed capacity of renewable energy in 2022.