The wind power unit of Russian nuclear giant Rosatom has started supplying electricity to the country’s wholesale power and capacity market from what it claims to be Russia’s largest wind farm to date.
The 150MW Adygea wind farm completed by Red Wind, a joint venture between Rosatom’s NovaWind JSC subsidiary and Lagerwey, features 60 Lagerwey L100/2.5MW turbines that meet the country’s requirement for a 65% localisation.
NovaWind plans to raise the share of locally produced components in its wind projects to 80-85%, Rosatom said.
Dutch OEM Lagerwey – a unit of German manufacturer Enercon – in 2017 had launched the Red Wind JV to produce, market and sell turbines in Russia. The JV followed up on a license agreement for Lagerwey’s 2.5MW and 4.5MW machines.
The turbines for Adygea were produced by Enercon production partners, the German OEM told Recharge. The company said it is supporting the localisation of wind turbine components in Russia to reach the local content requirement.
By 2023, Rosatom targets to build 1GW in wind power capacity in Russia, and is currently developing wind projects at four more sites in the Stavropol and Rostov regions. The following project to be installed is a 210MW wind farm in the Kochubeyevsky district of Stavropol, the company said.
Oil and gas-rich Russia in 2013 had started to hold annual renewable tenders to reach 5.4GW in renewable energy capacity by 2024 (3.35GW of which will come from wind power), which is slated to represent 4.5% of its energy generation.
The wind sector in the world’s largest country currently is still awaiting for a new government plan for the post-2024 period.
Next to Rosatom, large wind power developers in Russia include a consortium by Finnish utility Fortum and Russian partner Rusnano, which has won 1.8GW in wind power auctions and is currently installing a 198MW wind farm. Italy’s Enel through its Russian unit has a 362MW development pipeline in the country.
UPDATE adds details on Enercon's Lagerwey machines erected in the wind project
