GE has taken the wraps off a new 3.4MW turbine designed to “address the complexities” of European wind conditions.

The announcement has been unveiled today at the EWEA 2015 event in Paris.

The US company will produce the machine in either 130 or 137 metre rotors and, together with the already unveiled 3.2-130.

GE said it will result in its “most powerful family of onshore wind turbines to date”.

Five tower options are available, with hub heights ranging from 85 to 155 metres, putting tips well above 200 metres in the largest configuration. All models feature the modular hardware and software analytics of GE’s Digital Wind Farm.

Despite the technology builds on the existing 2.5 platform, it offers “improved load management systems, enhanced control features and more efficient drive-train technology”, the company said.

EDF Energy’s renewable arm has bought the Dorenell onshore wind farm project in Scotland which could provide electricity for up to 138,000 homes, the company said on Thursday.

The plant could generate up to 200 megawatts of electricity and is expected to begin operation in 2018 at a bid price of £82.50 per megawatt-hour.

EDF Energy, the British subsidiary of French utility EDF, will develop and construct the project alongside renewable energy company Infinergy which was previously developing the project, EDF Energy said in a statement.

EDF Energy chief executive Vincent de Rivaz said:

“Today’s announcement, just weeks before the international conference on climate change in Paris, confirms EDF Energy’s commitment to lead in UK investment in low carbon electricity. That means investment in wind and nuclear electricity generation with an increasing focus on the development of Scottish renewables.”

For his part, Infinergy managing director Esbjorn Wilmar commented :

“Our focus now is on bringing new technology through the planning process to make Dorenell the best wind farm it can be, maximising output at the site which will make an extremely important contribution to the renewable energy targets set by the Scottish government as part of policy to ensure greater diversity and security of electricity supplies.”

Dorenell, which will be built in the heart of whisky country near Dufftown in Moray, was consented in 2011 as a 177MW project featuring 59 turbines of 3MW each. The original developer is awaiting ministerial consent for a revised 60-unit layout featuring up to 3.3MW hardware.

Swedish operator Vattenfall has sold 88 wind turbines in Denmark to Green Power Partners for an undisclosed sum.

The turbines come from 19 wind farms on Jutland and have a total capacity of 65MW. Vattenfall says the sale comprises farms that do not fit its strategy to focus on larger wind power projects :

“The size of these wind farms does not match Vattenfall’s strategic direction, which is why we decided to sell them. We can now concentrate on further developing and strengthening our position in Denmark in the sector of large-scale onshore and offshore wind power”, said Martin Reinholdsson, Vice President of Vattenfall Generation.

One of the company’s large onshore developments in Denmark is the modernisation of the Klim wind farm in North-West Jutland that is almost complete now. It involves the replacement of 35 older turbines by 22 “much more efficient” ones.

At the same time, Vattenfall has emerged as one of the seven candidates to build the 600-MW Kriegers Flak offshore wind park in Danish waters. It is also working on the 400-MW Horns Rev 3 wind farm off the west coast of Jutland.

German turbine manufacturer Nordex posted earnings of €97.6 million in the third quarter of 2015, a 63% rise on the same period last year, helped by falling costs and rising demand in Europe and South Africa.

Orders have gone up by 57% and the performance has led the German company Nordex to raise its sales target for 2015 by roughly 15% from €1.9-2.1bn to between €2.3bn and €2.4bn.

Orders on hand climbed by 32% which, the company said in a statement, “provide the underpinnings for the expected growth in the first half of 2016.”

Europe and South Africa accounted for 88% of total sales with the remaining 12% coming from the Americas.

Nordex chief executive Lars Bondo Krogsgaard revealed the company plans to expand further.

He said: “We are currently growing more quickly than the wind power industry as a whole. This is due to our focus on the right markets, products and services. To ensure that we remain on this course of expansion in the long term, we have now decided to substantially strengthen our business by combining our activities with those of Acciona Windpower.”

Indeed, in early October, Nordex surprised the industry with the announcement it would acquire rival Acciona Windpower in a €785 million cash and shares deal. In return, the Acciona Group would become Nordex’s reference shareholder with a 29.9% stake.

The company will report on its medium-term outlook and strategic orientation at a capital markets day taking place tomorrow in Frankfurt.

The 144MW Westermeerwind offshore wind farm delivered last weekend the first power to the grid in the Netherlands.

The first 17 of 48 turbines have been installed by main contractor Siemens, with the project expected to be fully operational by the Spring of 2016.

Van Oord and Mammoet completed the last pile installation in late May 2015 and Siemens started adding the tower sections in mid-July started with placing the tower sections.

VolkerWessels Boskalis Marine Solutions completed the installation of 44km of power cables from the wind farm in June.

There are 42 connecting cables laid between the wind turbines and six export cables to transport the power from the wind turbines to the transformer station on the mainland.

Vestas has won a firm and unconditional order for turbines totaling 200MW from Inner Mongolia Hanas Wind Power for two Chinese wind power projects.

Under the deal, the Danish power equipment manufacturer will deliver 50 of its V110-2.0MW turbines for the Azuoqi 1A project, along with 25 of its V100-2.0 MW models and 25 of its V110-2.0MW turbines for the Azuoqi 1B project.

Both the wind projects are being developed in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and delivery and commissioning of the turbines have been scheduled for the second quarter of 2016.

The order is Vestas’ largest in China in 2015, according to the company. The manufacturer will also service the turbines for two years.

Vestas Asia Pacific and China president Chris Beaufait said:

“We are proud to have a close partner like Hanas, from which the formation of their wind energy businesses has focused on the levelised cost of energy and world-class operations and maintenance practices for the turbines’ entire lifecycle, and we are pleased to see that more and more developers in China are following suit.”

This deal for the Chinese wind power projects follows a co-operation agreement signed between the parties in October 2015, to strengthen their mutually beneficial collaboration. Hanas has previously ordered 600MW of turbines from Vestas for projects in China.

This week, Vestas announced revenue of €5.4 billion in the first nine months of 2015 with an order intake of 6.3GW globally.

China intends to increase its power generation capacity with 150GW wind power installations, which is in support of the country’s target to generate at least 15% of power mix from renewable sources by 2020.

Lekela Power, a joint venture between Irish developer Mainstream Renewable Power and investment firm Actis, has signed an agreement with the government’s transmission company to build a 250MW wind project.

Lekela’s 250MW project will be located in the Gulf of Suez region of northeast Egypt. Lekela will construct the project on a build, own and operate framework.

The private equity investor Actis owns 60% stake in Lekela Power, and the remaining 40% is owned by Irish green energy developer Mainstream Renewable Power.

The planned wind power development is expected to cost around $350m (€326m), according to Daily News Egypt.

The deal represents Lekela Power’s third Egyptian project. Earlier this year the firm signed deals for two more; a wind and a solar power project each having a 50MW capacity.

Lekela Power chief executive officer Chris Antonopoulos said :

“We are delighted to have agreed heads of terms for our third project in Egypt and we look forward to continuing to provide clean, safe, and cost-competitive energy to the Egyptian people through our wind and solar projects.”

The Lekela JV was launched in February 2015 in a $1.9 billion deal (€1.77bn). It is aiming to develop up to 900MW of wind and solar projects in Africa by 2018.

Canadian energy company Enbridge has acquired a 24.9% interest in the 400MW Rampion offshore wind farm, to be located 13 kilometres off the Sussex coast south of Brighton, England.

Enbridge will become a shareholders in Rampion Offshore Wind Limited, joining existing partners Eon, which will remain the controlling shareholder at 50.1%, and the UK Green Investment Bank.

The project received the final investment decision in May 2015, started construction in September and is expected to be fully operational in 2018.

Eon and Enbridge are already partners in the Magic Valley wind farm in Texas and the Wildcat wind farm in Indiana.

Eon Climate & Renewables chief operating officer Michael Lewis said:

“We are happy to strengthen our partnership with Enbridge as a reliable partner, who shares our approach of combining high class assets and safe operations. The company’s background in North American renewables and pipelines complements the expertise of the existing shareholder group. Our collective experience will help realise the successful construction and operation of the wind farm.”

Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas made a net profit of €206m in the third quarter of 2015, up from €102m a year earlier, as the company saw the value of turbine orders rise by 50%.

Vestas’ firm and unconditional turbine orders tallied 1508MW worth €1.5bn in Q3, up from 1170MW and €1bn a year earlier. The company received turbine orders for 6275MW worth €5.8bn in the first nine months of 2015, a rise from 4290MW and €3.7bn last year.

The company said Q3 sales were exclusively onshore wind turbines, with no offshore orders booked in the quarter.

Vestas’ net profit for the year to date was €387m, up from €198m a year earlier.

In the third quarter of 2015, Vestas generated revenue of €2.12bn – an increase of 17% a year ago. The company said the value of its wind turbine order backlog amounted to €8.2bn as of 30 September.

In addition to the wind turbine order backlog, Vestas had service agreements with contractual future revenue of €8.2bn at the end of September 2015. The combined value of the order backlog and service agreements stood at €16.4bn – an increase of €3bn on a year ago.

The company also announced a €150m share buy-back programme to adjust capital structure and to meet the obligations arising from employee share option programmes or other allocations of shares to employees.

Vestas chief executive Anders Runevad said :

“With greater clarity on deliveries for the remainder of the year and a very solid financial position, we are raising our guidance on revenue, EBIT margin, and free cash flow and initiating a share buy-back programme.”

Spanish manufacturer Gamesa has won a turnkey contract for two 100MW wind power projects in India.

While a 100 MW project in Madhya Pradesh will be commissioned by February 2017, a 100 MW project in Andhra Pradesh will be launched by December 2016.

As a part of this agreement, Gamesa will provide complete turnkey solutions for the dual project which will comprise of supply and erection of 50 units each, a wind turbine, the G97 2.0 MW with an increased hub height of 104m.

While the first 50 will be commissioned at the Amba wind farm in Madhya Pradesh, the remaining will be supplied to the Nimbagallu wind farm in Andhra Pradesh.

The specified Gamesa turbine variant is customised to function in low wind speed sites typical of India.

The Spanish firm has also recently secured a 78MW turbine supply order for a wind power project in New York, US.

The order entitles the company to deliver 37 of its G114-2.1 MW turbines in 2016.