Hamburg, 5 November 2019. Around 15 – 20 per cent of the total cost of wind turbines are accounted for by the tower and the related logistics costs for transport to the wind farm. For the Nordex Group, keeping these costs low is a further lever for reducing project costs for their customers. This is a major advantage, particularly in those markets where an auction system is used. For this reason, the Nordex Group uses concrete towers in addition to tubular steel and hybrid towers for parts of its product portfolio. What makes them special is that the manufacture of concrete tower segments is based on a mobile concept and is always located close to the wind farm, resulting in correspondingly low logistics costs. On-site production also means that the customer is able to meet any requirements for a local contribution to value added in a specific country. It also helps local economies to create direct and indirect employment.
The Nordex Group can now look back on 13 years of experience in the manufacture of concrete towers. In 2006, the first AW1500 turbine was installed on an 80 metre concrete tower in Spain. Recently a milestone was reached: the 1000th concrete tower for an AW125/3000 machine left the Brazilian factory in Lagoa do Barro do Piauí for the 595 MW “Lagoa dos Barros” wind farm. Thanks to the current order backlog for turbines in the AW platform, the Nordex Group will manufacture a further 1000 concrete towers by the end of 2020 alone.
