Gamesa terminates its negotiations with Bard in wind power offshore

Gamesa’s Board of Directors has resolved to end the company’s negotiations with Germany’s Bard and to roll out Gamesa’s strategy for the offshore wind energy market in the short and medium term using in-house resources.

Gamesa and Bard began talks at the end of February with the goal of combining potential synergies from the activities of a world leader in the design and manufacture of wind turbines – a company with a global commercial presence and a supplier to major electricity firms – with those of a pioneer in the offshore wind power industry.

However, during the course of negotiations and detailed study of the potential transaction both parts have found a significant discrepancy in the terms of the deal.

To play a significant role in the offshore wind energy market

The board’s decision does not affect the offshore strategy Gamesa designed in October 2009, through which the company aims to play a significant role in this market in the medium and long term. Its offshore strategy is geared towards ensuring that Gamesa capitalises on demand in the Northern European market, specifically the United Kingdom, beginning in 2015.

Using its multi-megawatt turbine technology (which has already been tailored for the G10X-4.5 MW system) and addressing its customers’ needs, Gamesa is currently at work to develop two families of offshore wind turbines. Pre-series of these turbines, which will each have capacity of either 5 MW or 6/7 MW, are slated for launch in 2013 and 2015, respectively.

Both systems address the key concerns currently dominating the market: the efficiency of civil engineering (the No. 1 cost component of investment in offshore wind), wind turbine reliability, grid code compliance, low maintenance needs and minimising the cost of electricity generation.

With more than 15 years’ experience, Gamesa is a world leader in the design, manufacture, installation and maintenance of wind turbines, with more than 18,000 MW installed in 20 countries of 4 continents.

The company is also a global benchmark in the market for the development, construction and sale of wind farms, with more than 3,500 MW installed and a wind farm portfolio totalling 22,000 MW at varying stages of development in Europe, America and Asia.

With 30 manufacturing facilities in Europe, the USA, China and India, and 4,400 MW of annual manufacturing capacity, Gamesa has an international workforce of more than 6,300 people.

www.gamesacorp.com