China Ming Yang Wind Power Group, a Guangdong-based wind turbine manufacturer, agreed to supply machines on 125 megawatts of projects in Bulgaria.
Ming Yang Wind Power (International), a unit of the company, signed contracts to provide turbines and build the two parks for W. Power, a Bulgarian wind energy developer, China Ming Yang said today in a statement.
“This represents a significant milestone of Ming Yang’s overseas market development, marking an important step in extending our footprint in mainstream European markets,” Chief Executive Officer Zhang Chuanwei said in the statement.
Chinese companies including Xinjiang Goldwind Science Technology, China’s second-largest wind-turbine maker, are studying expansion abroad to overcome a slowing home market after a tighter government approval process for new projects intensified competition.
New installed turbines in China about doubled each year from 2005 to 2010 when 18.9 gigawatts of new machines were added. That pace stalled last year as China added 18 gigawatts, according to the Global Wind Energy Council.
China Ming Yang will also help finance the project, according to Jonathan Mann, chief executive officer of Sofia- based W. Power, which also is talking to local banks about loans. He declined to give further details. He was speaking from Bucharest in Romania by phone.
‘New growth’
“As the industry moves to reduce reliance on the traditional wind markets of Western Europe, the US and China, new growth regions are emerging across the globe, including Eastern Europe,” Daniel Shurey, a wind energy policy analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said by e-mail.
China Ming Yang Wind agreed the engineering, procurement and construction contracts with W. Power and another company called A1 Development in December, according to the statement. The first three turbines were shipped on February 6 to the 4.5- megawatt pilot project in Somovit, which will be commissioned in July.
The 120-megawatt Milkovitsa project in Pleven in the north of Bulgaria is planned to start later this year. The entire 125- megawatt project will use China Ming Yang Wind turbines, Mann said.
