Scottish company Aggreko is searching for ways to enter into the wind power industry after advancing in the hydropower industry. The company believes that it can apply the same strategy in developed countries where wind power is growing exponentially.
In its biennial strategy review, Aggreko said that as the contribution of energy from wind farms grows, countries would need a mix of generation sources able to cater for variations, which gas and nuclear stations are not properly equipped to manage. "Our technology is ideally suited to intermittent, fast-start operation. We can bring enough power online to keep the lights on for whole cities within 30 seconds," a company spokesman said. "We think system operators will come to find this sort of sustainable, distributed, fast response capability essential if they are to operate with meaningful amounts of wind generation."
CEO Rupert Soames said the opportunity it believes will be created by wind power may not materialize within the next decade, but the board was "opening our kimonos to shareholders about what we’re thinking.”
"In a lot of projects in Africa and South America we are helping customers to manage the intermittency of renewables. It is just in those countries it is in hydro, rather than wind. Large amounts of wind power coming into the network will, we think, produce a need for a different form of power generation that is able to step in and step out to help manage the volatility of wind," Soames said. "And we think that we’ve got a pretty good solution for that, and this might be an opportunity."
Soames stressed that the potential was large. "We’re not talking any numbers, but the amount of power that’s in the developed world is more than in the less developed world – it could be quite a large sandpit for us to play in."
If Aggreko is looking to start their work at home, then it should be prepared for competition from those that have been involved in the wind sector for many years. The Scottish government approved two onshore wind farm projects adding to its 3,000 MW of installed renewable energy in August. The government also announced plans for an additional 3,000 MW to meet the country’s target to incorporate 31% of power demand from renewable sources by 2011 and 50% by 2020 (Scotland Approves Two Onshore Wind Farm Projects).
However, there are great opportunities within the developed world – particularly Aggreko’s home and neighboring countries. Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, and the UK will try to create the world’s first RE supergrid by connecting Scotland’s wind turbines to Germany’s solar panels, riding the waves on the Belgian and Danish coasts, in addition to adding Norway’s hydro dams to the mix (Connecting to Make the 1st RE Supergrid).
For questions or comments regarding articles on AE-Africa.com, please contact Associate Editor, LeAnne Graves at lgraves@AE-Africa.com.
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