Marguerite Specials Wind & Solar Energy

XEMC production- and assembly factory for wind turbines now at "Axelse Vlakte" in the south of The Netherlands?

2010-11-09T12:12:00.004+01:00

I just read a Dutch article about XEMC, who bought Darwind in 2009. It looks like they will not have their production and assembly hall in the north of the Netherlands, but right on the other side, in the south, near Belgium, in the province of Zeeland.

During the years 2004-2009 the province Noord-Holland paid a lot of subsidiary funds in wind energy projects. One of the most important reasons was to employ people in that province who had no job. Skilled people, but without the marine, who cut back on staff, without work.A number of them found a job in the factory of Harakosan and later on Darwind.

Now in a Dutch news article by Wout Bareman it was mentioned that a new area in the south of the Netherlands, Axelse vlakte could actually be the new site for the production and assembly factory. This would not be a bad choice in fact, because of the cooperation with two companies based in that area, Unitron and Technotron. Also for transport of the turbines to be built it is of vital importance to have good roads to the major seaports of Europe (Rotterdam and Antwerp) The enormous turbines do weigh more than 17.000 kilos per item and of course, special transport is required. It is important to do this kind of transports as fast as possible.

The mayor of Terneuzen, Jan Lonink has mentioned the Chinese Xiangtan Electric Manufacturing Group (XEMC) Windpower is considering the Axelse vlakte as a possibility.When exactly XEMC-Darwind will decide upon the new location of the European base, is still not clear.

More links of interest (mainly in Dutch):Axels Vlakte on Google Maps, Jan Lonink on LinkedIn , Terneuzen, Provinciaal Beleid Zeeland subsidies duurzame energie

It may be useful to read them with Google Translator - you will at least get a basic idea of what the story is about.

19.000.000 $

2009-08-17T12:51:00.004+02:00

STX buys Netherlands turbine maker in $19m deal aimed at gaining global market share

On BusinessGreenAsia details of the deal (STX buys Harakosan Europe) are published.
For the price of $ 19.000.000, after 4,5 years (started 1 February 2005) and a big increase of number of employees.

Read article on BusinessGreenAsia website

On the same website details of another take-over can be found;

Shipmaker aims to be one of the world's largest wind turbine makers by 2020
South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding snaps up DeWind for $49m

Read article on BusinessGreenAsia website

Both articles are written by Yvonne Chan in Hong Kong

Dutch TV item about wind turbines & Darwind

2009-08-11T02:11:00.013+02:00

On August 5, 2009 Dutch TV showed an item about the problems wind turbine companies are facing in The Netherlands. It's one of the reasons why The Netherlands is not really getting as many wind turbines installed as was planned. Expansion of number if wind turbines in The Netherlands is really slow. Why ?

Netwerk ; from time code 06:25 (approx.) the item shows Darwind and CEO Vincent van den Brekel, who informs us about their direct drive wind turbine (5 MW offshore - to be produced in 2010), nacelle will be on low level, only generator will be on top of the tower.

Video (may not be available outside The Netherlands :-(

Reasons of the delay ? Bureaucracy ! rather a shame for a country that was famous for its wind mills. Investors now prefer Belgium, where things seem to be better organized.

See also promotion video of Zeekracht (Sea Power)

In 2020 20% of total energy in The Netherlands should be "clean" energy, but it doesn't look as if they will make it this way.

According to the reporter in Netwerk the issue will be discussed in parliament in September.

Vestas

2009-08-05T14:08:00.003+02:00

One of the wind turbine manufacturers that still have a base in The Netherlands is Vestas, a Danish company.

The Dutch website can be found here.

According to their information they have about 200 persons working in the Benelux area. Something the Dutch government could take into account when looking for wind turbine companies.

XEMC

2009-08-05T11:32:00.006+02:00

A little bit of information about XEMC, the company that just bought Darwind (see previous post) can be found of course on the XEMC website on windpower, a part of the XEMC company.

XEMC about XEMC windpower

If fact XEMC joined forces with Harakosan Japan a couple of years ago for the installation of many 2MW wind turbines in China.

XEMC (China) buys Darwind (Netherlands)

2009-08-04T02:40:00.015+02:00

In Dutch news items on-line the take over of Darwind in The Netherlands by XEMC was announced on 3 August 2009.

Article (in Dutch)

In this article a Korean party is mentioned as well. Maybe this is the same company that took over Harakosan Europe BV.

Both Harakosan Europe and Darwind are working with the direct magnet drive principle designed by Henk Lagerwey (see my previous post on the take over of Harakosan)

So Dutch technology is now in Asian hands. While Dutch Government is looking for good parties to build clean energy technology in their seas, they let their knowledge leave the country....

Interesting to see that the picture used in the article is in fact a picture of one of the first, old models by Lagerwey. in the meantime the wind turbines are a lot bigger and better looking. The Z72 and Z82 (both by Harakosan Europe) are fine looking machines.

Lagerwey Wind is now producing wind turbines of 2 MW and according to their website www.lagerweywind.nl there will be 2,5 and 3,5 versions as well.
See a picture of the 2 MW on their website.

See Mr. Lagerwey in a TV interview in my previous post.

UPDATE:
Another (older) Dutch article about Darwind can be found at the website of Energeia.

UPDATE:
Reaction of Mr. Van den Brekel, CEO Darwind on Energeia website (Dutch)

NRC article about Darwind/XEMC

New owner for Harakosan Europe BV !

2009-08-03T13:36:00.011+02:00

In stead of being owned by the Japanese company Harakosan, Harakosan Europe is now part of STX Heavy Industries, a Korean company (http://www.stxhi.co.kr/eng/).

The news about this transfer was published in the Chosan Ilbo.

STX Heavy Industries on Wednesday said it has signed an agreement to buy Harakosan Europe B.V., a Dutch wind-power turbine maker, and its wind-power technology patents.

STX Heavy spent W24 billion to acquire the company and will invest an additional W100 billion on building plants and R&D. By obtaining the original technologies for onshore and offshore wind-power turbines, STX Heavy hopes to enhance its position in Korea's wind-power industry.

Read the complete text on their website.

Some information is not quite correct; Founded in 1979, while actually Harakosan Europe was founded in february 2005 after buying the rests of a bankrupt company called Zephyros, that was founded a couple of years before that. The original idea and design for the direct drive wind turbine came from Lagerwey, a company founded by the inventor, mr. Lagerwey. Unfortunately that compnay also went bankrupt. Hopefully under the wings of STX the company will now be able to expand on a larger scale.

One wonders if company name will change into STX The Netherlands ??

UPDATE
News on the take over on http://www.sustainablebusiness.com
and on Steelguru.

Affiliated company in Europe STX Europe ?

On The Harakosan website no news about the take over yet per August 5, 2009

Vroege Vogels - Dutch TV programme

2009-02-04T20:18:00.003+01:00

Well it is a Dutch TV programme, so if you are not Dutch it will be hard to understand what it is about but from timecode 00:05:40 you will find an item about wind energy with wind turbine specialist Henk Lagerwey. Click on the banner here below and watch the video, you can go straight to the time code 00:05:40 there.

Solar energy at home

2009-01-17T17:41:00.004+01:00

Not only wind energy but also solar energy can be put into practical use at home. Today a supplier of solar panels visited us to have a look at the possibilities at our roof.

It is a flat roof of 5.10 meters wide and 4.00 meters deep, so about 20 m² surface. We will probably be able to put 4 solar panels on it. Details to follow next Tuesday !

New Energy TV International

2008-10-06T20:54:00.001+02:00

One of my favourite internet tv channels: have a look too at New Energy TV International

The Netherlands more into wind energy at sea

2008-10-06T20:18:00.007+02:00

Lately Dutch politicians become more and more interested in wind energy at sea. Today a Dutch news item was published at nu.nl about investing in this type of "green"(or should I say blue) energy.

For those who can read Dutch (or know how to use Google Translate): news item at nu.nl

Offshore Wind Turbine Generator Systems

2007-12-25T00:45:00.003+01:00

News 25 December 2007 about 2 offshore wind turbines for Korea

Another permanent magnet drive in the North

2007-10-08T09:53:00.008+02:00

Just checking the names of the visitors of this weblog I found Northern Power Systems in Vermont, Barre, USA. It seems that this company is now part of Distributed Energy Systems. Checking their website I found another wind turbine with a permanent magnet drive generator; the NorthWind 100. A brochure is available as well as a Technology Generation brochure.

Have a look at Distributed Energy Systems' website (as I just did) and find out what they produce.

Looking for more information on the NorthWind 100 I found an article about it on the website of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the section Honor & Awards. Not bad !

More clean energy in the North

2007-09-30T02:09:00.003+02:00

Another interesting company in the North of Europe is Tussa Telit AS in Norway.
Thanks to the mountains and the water in Norway they can provide several forms of clean energy.

Read more on their website.

The Hogsara Demonstration Project

2007-09-30T01:59:00.003+02:00

Three wind turbines are being installed on an island in the South of Finland.
Responsible company is Hafmex. Read more on their website.

More on my website under Wind Energy News in English version.

Listen to a presentation at EWEC2007

Clipper

2007-09-30T01:53:00.002+02:00

Some time ago a relation working in the wind industry mentioned the company Clipper to me. He told me it was really interesting and advised me to visit their website.

So I did. Will you join me ? Let's visit Clipper and read about for example the permanent magnet generator...

A bit about the author of this weblog

2007-05-11T21:45:00.002+02:00

You have found this weblog because you are interested in wind energy and maybe, because you want to know more about me. You are kindly invited to continue your reading on my personal website http://www.marguerite-efde.nl.

If by any chance, your interest is professional and you want to know more about my company and my professional skills, please visit my company website http://www.fd-id.nl

I am looking forward to our virtual meeting and who knows, maybe they are followed up by meetings in Real Life ?

DarwinD

2007-05-11T21:03:00.003+02:00

Dutch wind turbine company DarwinD, planning to produce 4,5 MW offshore wind turbines, can be found on the internet at http://www.darwind.nl

On their website you can find following information about partners:

DarwinD is an initiative of ATO-NH (www.ato.nl) and the Dutch province of North-Holland.
DarwinD is a part of the Econcern group (www.econcern.com) and works in collaboration
with the following partners: Harakosan, Converteam Ltd., Rothe Erde, SSP, Heine&Hopman,
TBD, Boskalis, Mammoet, Heerema.

13 wind turbines in China

2007-01-16T12:31:00.002+01:00

News from the Harakosan Japan website (12 1-2007):

original document

rough translation:

The position name Representative President field of 2007 January 9th everyone company name corporation Hara Hiro product representative ? Showa (the code 8894 Osaka Stock Exchange 2nd section) you inquired and at the tip managing director Sonoda ? ? telephone number 0832 - 29 - 8894

Chinese Fujian ministries, the wind turbine incoming order this corporation from combining, started doing the incoming order activity of the wind turbine in the Chinese country, but the Hunan ? electric wind talent limited responsibility company which this each time is the joint corporation of the locale received an order 13 wind turbines (generation of electricity quantity 26,000KW). Details of incoming order are as mentioned below.

Description contract cardinal number 13 generation of electricity quantitative 26,000KW contract amount 3,000,000,000 Yen or less (the formal amount with respect to commercial usage of China you refrain) ahead supplying the order person large China electrical ? state wind force generation of electricity limited responsible company principal part inside the payment date 2007 11 end of the month installation features Fujian economical ? state six ? wind power stations it is Harakosan Europe B.V. which is the subsidiary company of this corporation.

However, the tower, concerning the blade and the casting etc, it supplies in the Chinese country. As for particular project it is the schedule which contributes to the achievement of 2008 February period of this corporation. Now it adjusts the incoming order in China to this case and has become the total 15 bases. Furthermore, please read our company home page 2006 September 25th and November 7th concerning the general condition of the Hunan ? electric wind talent limited responsibility company which is circumstance of the wind force generation of electricity market which has been expanded in China and the joint corporation of the locale.

New websites

2007-01-16T12:22:00.002+01:00

Since december 2006 I have started a new website and soon there will be a second one (per 1-1-2007); my company at : http://www.fd-id.nl

New production hall of Harakosan Europe officially opened !

2006-11-06T00:00:00.001+01:00

Mr. Hara and Mr. Okamoto of Harakosan Japan, the latter being the general manager of Harakosan Europe B.V. in The Netherlands, were present at the official opening of the new production hall in Den Helder, The Netherlands, on Thursday 2 November 2006.

Unfortunately the Dutch press did not (yet) pay much attention to this occasion. It is a pity because Harakosan Europe BV is the only production company of the direct drive turbine in The Netherlands.

I am still looking for official press releases of the owner of the hall, ATO or Harakosan Europe BV itself, who will be renting the hall for a period of 5 years. Pictures have been removed but will be published again soon!

The new official address is:

Harakosan Europe Assembly Hall
IJzergietersweg 1a
1786 RD Den Helder
The Netherlands

It is easy to find via Google Earth: den Helder, The Netherlands, west from crossing N9/N99.

WP-Q7

2006-10-22T17:47:00.006+02:00

WP-Q7 means Wind Park in Quarter 7 of the Northsea: a new project with offshore wind turbines. This is the second one in The Netherlands. You can find more information on the Q7-website.

Q7 website

I have found many pictures of this project on a personal weblog called the Kombuispraat (Galley Talk).

Kombuispraat over #windmolen zoals deze
Vestas Wind A/S

The wind turbines are from Vestas, the well known danisch wind turbine producing company.

It took years before this project could actually start, I found proposals and reports of 2001. They are all in Dutch so that will not be so interesting for you. If you know Dutch you can find all relevant hyperlinks on my Dutch website in a weblog entry of 21 October 2006.

Interestig is to read who are taking part in this project. The companies E-Concern and Ecoventures, WinWind

E-Concern, by the way, is also shareholder of DarwinD a fairly young company (their website is not even on-line), based in Den Helder and probably planning to have production (if any) in the same new assembly hall as Harakosan Europe BV, the makers of the direct drive wind turbine Z-72 and working very hard on the new turbine Z-82.

A small world, isn't it ?

Wind Power Monthly

2006-10-19T12:46:00.000+02:00

A very practical and useful website & magazine for those interested in wind energy.

Visit their website.

In the October issue the Dutch ministers decision to cut on energy subsidiary is commented ! (see my entry of October 12, 2006)

Panorama picture of wind farm in Caton Moor, England

2006-10-19T12:37:00.000+02:00

A panorama picture by Tim Cooper of a wind farm in Caton Moor, England can be found here.

Tim has done us the favour of inserting a link to the exact location that can be watched with Google Earth ! I do not know if this works but let's try: Show in Google Earth*
Well it does work (if you have Google Earth installed of course). When you are there, zoom in and see how wonderful this wind farm looks, seen from near space !

My videos of prototype Z72 and other wind turbines at Maasvlakte

2006-10-16T03:15:00.000+02:00

Interested in more ? They are available on request. There are also videos....

video 1

video 2

video 3

video 4

video 5

More pictures of the Z72 direct drive wind turbines

2006-10-16T02:45:00.000+02:00

Found at Flickr

Picture made by Chieftain between 26 & 28 May 2006 and published at Flickr in a series about the Kaomei Wetlands

Picture made by and published byParticia at Flickr on 10 September 2006 in this picture series

Made by and published on Flickr op 8 October 2006 by fjny

Very practical : a link to Google Earth map !

The first 56 pictures of the installation of these turbines were found at Luxe Electrics Co Ltd (see one of my previous blog entries).

This is how it started on 17 November 2004, almost 2 years ago...

Subsidiary money on clean energy investments stopped

2006-10-12T17:48:00.000+02:00

I don't know what our government is thinking but they do not have a very clear policy on clean energy. In the past years they have helped companies to invest in clean energy technologies by providing subsidiary funds (paid by our tax money !). There were two main objects; more jobs and more clean energy (at least I thought so). Now, 18 August of this year suddenly this was cut. The so called MEP ended abrubtly. The Netherlands seem to have chosen another path to the future ? Let's hope our government will chose to invest in clean energy again. Our future generation and the rest of the world will benefit from it.

The information in English on the official website from our Ministry explains what MEP is. It does, howver, not show a translation of the latest news items about the end of this MEP.

Al Gore commented shortly about this in his speech last week. See speech video at New Energy TV

Not all Dutch like wind turbines

2006-10-12T17:35:00.000+02:00

In fact, author Martin Bril really hates them. He is explaining why in a Dutch tv programme Nova TV. He nominates the Irene Vorrink wind farm as the ugliest place in The Netherlands.
His main objection is the fact that there are several differnt models and most of all; that they move.

Needless to say that I totally disagree with Martin !

See the video (click on BEKIJK ITEM)

Information found at Edo's about XEMC / Harakosan

2006-10-12T13:31:00.000+02:00

Edo-san in Japan writes a very interesting website. He is, like I am, very interested in the wind turbine industry and particularly in the Harakosan product (that by the way in the google translation turns out as Hara Hiro). Today I found another interesting entry about XEMC, the Chinese company that bought the 22 Z72-turbines from Harakosan Japan.

Edo's entry (translated by Google)

Website of XEMC

Like Edo I love the flash opening of the website but the rest, even translated into English (Google), doesn't tell me much yet. The indicated English pages were not available yet at XEMC-website, there is no link there. However I am only visitor 476, so I may be looking at a BETA version, that was published by accident ??

Just by trying the several Chinese menu items I found this page about the turbines.

Wind turbine information (translated by Google)

And there is indeed the proof they are talking about the Harakosan product. A small link to the Harakosan Europe website in the left corner with the text: The European State Talent Manufacture.

Well, I would suggest Edo to visit the entry on the website of The Newhampshire Bushman too so he can see the pictures and the comments made by the author.

Wind turbines in Taichun, Taiwan

2006-10-12T02:43:00.000+02:00

Just found a weblog by The New Hampshire Bushman in Taiwan. Interesting pictures of wind turbines in Taichun area. I wonder if these are the 18 Harakosan Z72's ?? If they are situated at the Taiwan Power Company plant, they must be the ones with the direct drive PM generator.

Have a look at the pictures of The New Hampshire Bushman in Taiwan

Where exactly are those 18 turbines installed ? They certainly look like the Z72 ! If so, there is a total of 22, 4 more at Taichun Harbour site. All this information can be found on the website of the Chinese supplier Luxe Electronic Co. Ltd.

(Translated by Google): information about where wind turbine are located.

information about the wind turbine itself.

56 pictures of the Z72-installation (from basement to hub) 2005 !

If you start with picture 1 you click on the Chinese characters on the right top side to go to the next one.

New Energy TV

2006-10-10T19:16:00.000+02:00

Here in the Netherlands we have a very interesting internet tv channel about clean energy. The name is New Energy TV and they publish information about all kinds of types of new energy (in Dutch).

They have a stand at the Energy 2006 Fair in Den Bosch, the Netherlands. I am going there tomorrow thanks to a wind turbine maintenance company in the Netherlands.

News from Harakosan Japan

2006-10-10T11:50:00.000+02:00

Via Edo-san's website I found two interesting official publications from Harakosan Japan about the production ans selling of wind turbines.

These wind turbines are being made in Den Helder, the Netherlands.

Harakosan Japan: News about Hogsara

rough translation of the text:

The position name Representative President field of 2006 October 10th everyone company name corporation Hara Hiro product representative 將 Showa (the code 8894 Osaka Stock Exchange 2nd section) to inquire, because Harakosan Europe BV which is the subsidiary company of the news this corporation regarding semi offshore wind force generator formal incoming order at the tip managing director Sonoda 匡 克 telephone number 832 - 29 - 8894 this corporation subsidiary company this each time the Finnish corporation (Via Wind Ltd Oy)* from received an order 2,000kW semi offshore wind force generator 3 formally, as mentioned below we inform. Furthermore, there is no influence in this term connected achievement. Description <Project summary> Incoming order equipment and material: Z72 (Harakosan Europe BV production) 3 basic rated output 6,000kW CO2 reduction effects: 10,440<t- CO2/year> Installation features: The finnish island (Hogsara , Finland) incoming order amount: Approximately 700,000,000 Yen (the EU grant is included) completion schedule: 2007 May <Semi offshore> As for this project being something which is installed in the fog plate island which is one of the islands which scatter countlessly is categorized to the Finnish south west section, as for the special seaside location the valuable data accumulation which is directed to future transoceanic development semi as offshore is expected. Especially, as for the expectation where economical part structure of permanent magnet magnetization of the Harakosan Europe BV make wind force generator advocates the economical maintenance effect of ideal and in local end including the self-governing community authorities quite there are large ones. In addition, while receiving the furtherance of the EU authorities, the technical result which is by under the environment whose north Europe is harsh doing is thought the verification of the renewable energy introduction technique in the islands section as the thing which contributes to future commodity development largely. It is the incoming order in first north Europe for the Harakosan product group, it becomes big basis in the market development in future same area. Presently the inquiry from the Eastern Europe sphere from many thing, furthermore it starts assuring strengthening the sale system in the same area.

Found: (Via Wind Ltd Oy)

Hafmex website

No news about this at Harakosan Europe website yet

Harakosan Japan: News about Mashita wind power project

Rough translation of the message:

Mashita wind power started construction to the construction of two wind turbine projects that will be the first order for a domestic wind turbine.

This project comprises the installation of a total 12 bases (11 and 1) in Shimane prefecture Gotsu city and Mashita city, incoming order sum total is 50,000,025,000,000 Yen. The wind turbine will be the type Z82 due to the new development of this corporation. This uses the blade of 40 meters, generates electricity 2,000kW iper hour. The principal part the blade will be supplied by the corporation Japan Steel Works, the generator and the parts will be supplied from European manufacturers. Term of works, the end of February 2008 is planned concerning for Gotsu window power 11, the end of February 2007 is planned for the Mashita wind power project. Furthermore, it interweaves to this term connection achievement expectation and it is being completed.

Found:

Gotsu City

Mashita is now part of Gero city: see translated homepage of Gero City

Use Google Earth to have a look at all cities mentioned above !

Al Gore on Belgian TV

2006-10-09T09:27:00.001+02:00

This evening Al Gore was invited for an in depth interview by Greet de Keyser of CANVAS television (2nd tv channel in Belgium). Of course the main topic was his campaign for the protection of the Earth by against global warming.

It was interesting to hear that many Americans now also start to change their mind about this issue. Even more surprising was to hear that mayors of many cities in the States have already signed the Kyoto protocol while the president and the Senate still refuse to do so.

I wonder what the many millions of people in China think of the subject ?

Dutch/Flemish website of CANVAS TV

More at Wikipedia about Al Gore & the official Algore.org website for more information

An Inconvenient Truth

2006-10-09T01:21:00.003+02:00

Al Gore came to the Netherlands to promote the movie An Inconvenient Truth.I am happy he did, it is vital that people understand the importance of clean energy.

Our Dutch Internet tv-channel on new energy shows part of Al Gore's speech.

M-Energy

2006-10-09T01:07:00.003+02:00

This weblog will be used for my comments on clean energy in general and wind energy in particular.

This weblog (English only) will be part of my official website (available in Dutch, English, French and Japanese)

Clean Energy : important to all of us and to those who will live in the future