Areva is a company that is best described a French based corporate industrial conglomerate with their hands in the mining trade, energy trade, and within the last several years, the renewable energy trade. The renewable energy side of Areva’s business began in 2006 when they announced the creation of the Areva Renewables Group. Since then, their renewable energy business has spread out from their headquarters in Paris, France to encompass a variety of nations where serious renewable energy projects are underway.
Of all of Areva’s renewable energy projects, one of their most recent focuses has been on the use of wind energy on a fairly large scale. Areva announced on the twenty third of December that they had successfully won a $524 Million, or 400 million Euro, contract to supply forty turbines to an offshore wind farm based roughly twenty eight miles off the coast of Germany in the North Sea. The wind farm in question, called Borkum West II, will be bolstered by the five megawatt M5000 turbines that Areva is to supply by 2011. According to the deal, Areva will continue to maintain and test the turbines after their placement. The turbines are expected to generate enough electricity to power 200,000 homes by the time they are completed and online by either the end of 2012 or the beginning of 2013.
Areva’s foray into wind power as part of their renewable energy portfolio is actually a fairly recent one. After purchasing stock in another wind turbine construction company in 2007, the company moved to buy out the company outright and formed Areva Wind in June of 2010. It is at this facility based in Germany that the five megawatt M5000 turbines will be constructed that are bound for the Borkum West II offshore wind farm in the coming new year.
Aside from their wind based renewable energy projects, Areva also has their hands in a variety of other renewable energy sources. Working with American based companies that they have bought interest in, Areva has been developing solar power generators and solar based steam boilers. They are also working on a variety of biomass generators and hydrogen power projects that could all see fruition in the next several years.
With all of Areva’s projects on the renewable energy front, the industrial giant stands to make a large impact on the renewable energy world. The wind energy project alone off the coast of Germany is a fairly sizable contribution to Germany’s rapidly growing renewable energy portfolio and yet another contribution after previous Areva turbines were given to other wind farms throughout the nation. What the future holds for Areva remains to be seen, but it is certain that they will continue to work on renewable energy projects for the foreseeable future.
Article by Richard Cooke, appearing courtesy Justmeans.
