Jason Ford

Mabey Bridge secures REpower wind-turbine tower order

News

Mabey Bridge has secured an order with REpower to manufacture and supply 53 wind-turbine towers for wind farms across Cumbria, Derbyshire, Yorkshire and France.

The Chepstow-based company has now won more than 150 orders for towers since it opened its new £38m facility in May 2011.

Production of the up to 80m-long, 138-tonne tubular steel structures began in April and the final tower is set for completion by late December 2012.

Alex Smale, Mabey Bridge UK director, explained to The Engineer that a number of factors have helped shaped the company’s success in the onshore and offshore wind market.

From April 2013 the value of ROCs (renewables obligation certificates) will drop by 10 per cent to 0.9ROCs/MWh for onshore wind.

‘I think the announcement in October 2011… spurred those that can into getting their developments underway, so that they get that extra five per cent return on their investment for the life of the investment,’ he said.

Market conditions aside, Smale added that multinational utilities understand the ‘significant amount of political advantage’ in increasing the amount of UK content in their wind-farm projects.

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