26 Dec 2024 15:24

Rosatom launches wind turbine blade production in Ulyanovsk region

ULYANOVSK. Dec 26 (Interfax) - The Rosatom State Corporation has launched production of wind turbine blades, an Interfax correspondent reported from the launch ceremony.

It is anticipated that the plant will produce up to 450 blades annually for 150 wind turbines after full ramp-up. The first blades will be made for Rosatom's planned wind farm in Dagestan. "The production technologies used ensure a service life of 25 years for the blades," the company said in a statement.

"We have several contracts abroad, primarily in Kyrgyzstan [where a Rosatom entity could build up to 1 GW of wind farms]," Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachev told reporters, when asked where the blades from the new plant would go.

"We will also be happy to send blades from here to the plants in Kyrgyzstan," he said.

In addition, Likhachev said a number of "other countries are developing of green clusters" with both solar and wind power, where this equipment can be used.

The project was financed with the help of the Industrial Development Fund - Rosatom did not disclose the extent of the IDF's participation.

The IDF told Interfax that "investments in the new production site amounted to 1.67 billion rubles, of which IDF provided 1.3 billion rubles as loan on preferential terms."

Grigory Nazarov, head of Rosatom Renewable Energy, formerly Novawind, told reporters earlier that the production facility would work only to cover the company's needs for the time being. "For now, yes, this is the starting position," he said.

It emerged in the spring of 2023 that Rosatom would locate wind turbine blade manufacturing in the Ulyanovsk region.

"This is not a new project for us. More than two years ago we developed our own Umatex blade," Umatex head Alexander Tyunin told reporters at the time, adding that it was made for a Novawind wind turbine.

"For various reasons, the project did not get as far as the investment phase during these two years," Tyunin said, adding that this was also influenced by the preferential terms of the Indian supplier. Now, he said, Rosatom has made a strategic decision to set up its own production of turbine blades in Russia.

Umatex as a whole does not rule out supplying blades to other companies if they are interested, he said. For now, focusing on Novawind's needs, the company plans to produce about 360-380 blades per year, Tyunin said at the time. Production should be set up within two years. "In 2025, we plan to start serial deliveries of blades to Novawind wind generators," Tyunin said.

Vestas, one of the biggest foreign manufacturers of equipment for wind farms which worked on wind projects with Fortum, now Forward Energo, has left Russia. Vestas Manufacturing Rus planned to mothball the turbine blade plant in Ulyanovsk that had operated since December 2018 by the end of last year, the Russian Industry and Trade Ministry has said. "The plant has shut, but the competencies remain, the site remains, good personnel remain," the regional governor has said, commenting on the agreement with Rosatom.