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.
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
Monday, August 17, 2009
19.000.000 $
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
Both articles are written by Yvonne Chan in Hong Kong
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Dutch TV item about wind turbines & Darwind
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.
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Vestas
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
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.
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
XEMC (China) buys Darwind (Netherlands)
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
Monday, August 03, 2009
New owner for Harakosan Europe BV !
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
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Vroege Vogels - Dutch TV programme
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.
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