The deal means that the steel tubular towers will be manufactured in the UK for most of REpower’s planned wind farms. The REpower nacelle and the blades will continue to be made to order at the REpower factories throughout Europe.
Rick Eggleston, Managing Director of REpower UK, commented: “Sourcing our towers direct from the UK has been on our agenda for a while and we’re pleased to have found a reliable and high quality supplier in Mabey Bridge. This agreement gives us a real boost in serving the needs of our clients and will improve our competitiveness in a tough UK market.
“Local procurement of the towers from a reliable UK manufacturer makes sense. We have met Mabey Bridge many times now and we’re impressed with the high standard of the product and the Mabey Bridge commitment to customer care. We’re confident that we will have a productive and positive relationship with them as we both build our businesses in the UK.”
“With 25 wind farms now running across the country, we are well on our way to delivering our 400 MW target in the spring of this year.”
Lars Rytter Kristensen, Chief Supply Chain Officer, Repower Systems AG adds: “The preferred supplier agreement with Mabey Bridge confirms our commitment to build up a competitive supply chain in the UK market and will furthermore secure REpower wind turbines capacity for towers in one of our core markets.”
Peter Lloyd, managing director of Mabey Bridge, said: "This is fantastic news for Mabey Bridge and we look forward to working with REpower on wind energy projects across the UK."
Since its launch in 2003 REpower UK has delivered 22 onshore wind farms in Scotland, England and Wales and one offshore wind farm, Project Beatrice, in the North Sea. Beatrice consists of two REpower 5M wind turbines, one of the largest offshore wind turbines available in the world.
REpower UK is an award winning company and has a team of 60 people based in Edinburgh and across the UK. It is wholly owned by REpower Systems AG which operates in 11 countries worldwide.
REpower UK is a private limited company wholly owned by REpower AG, the German based manufacturer. It is responsible for sales, installation and servicing of REpower wind farms onshore and offshore. Headquartered in Edinburgh, REpower UK has a team of 60 staff and a growing client list.
REpower Systems AG is one of the leading manufacturers of onshore and offshore wind turbines. The international mechanical engineering company develops produces and markets wind turbines with rated outputs of 2 to 6,15 MW and rotor diameters of 82 to 126 metres for almost any location. In addition to this it offers an extensive range of service and maintenance services. The profitable and reliable systems are designed at the REpower development centre in Rendsburg and manufactured at its Husum (North Friesland), Trampe (Brandenburg) and Bremerhaven plants.
The company, which is headquartered in Hamburg and has been listed since March 2002, has over 1,800 employees worldwide and can draw on experience gained in the manufacture and installation of almost 2,000 wind turbines worldwide. REpower is represented by distribution partners, subsidiaries and participations in foreign markets such as France, the UK, Italy, Portugal and Spain, as well as on a global level in the USA, Japan, China and Australia.
Mabey Bridge is a specialist supplier of modular steel bridging, car parks and heavy plated steelwork. The company is part of the Mabey Group, a private family-owned group of companies with a turnover of £150 million and almost 1,000 employees. Mabey Bridge has a turnover of £70m and 400 employees. Based in Chepstow, South Wales, the company’s history can be traced back to the construction of Brunel’s Wye railway bridge in 1849.
