Blades for wind generators to be made in the Ulyanovsk region

the President and the General Manager of a Chinese company "Dongfang Electric Corporation" Chen Jun, the CEO of Ulyanovsk Region Development Corporation Sergey Vasin and the CEO of the ULNANOTECH NanoCenter Andrey Redkin signed a memorandum of intentions in the presence of the provisional Governor Sergey Morozov

Blades for wind generators to be made in the Ulyanovsk region

On Thursday, the President and the General Manager of a Chinese company "Dongfang Electric Corporation" Chen Jun, the CEO of Ulyanovsk Region Development Corporation Sergey Vasin and the CEO of the ULNANOTECH NanoCenter Andrey Redkin signed a memorandum of intentions in the presence of the provisional Governor Sergey Morozov.

Sergey Morozov noted that recently the cooperation between China and the Ulyanovsk region, which was launched in the 1980s, has started extensive development. "Today we should take a very important and responsible step which, in my opinion, will become a great breakthrough of our region that will lead into the modern technological future. We think that the project on construction of a powerful wind farm is one of the most important projects in the Ulyanovsk region. The task that we have set for ourselves is rather simple: by 2025, one third of the consumed electrical energy should be produced from renewable sources. For the moment, we are the only subject in the Russian Federation which has set such a challenge. In our region development of renewable power has been given particular emphasis, and we have an opportunity to use the current situation for the successful beginning of mutually beneficial cooperation with the Dongfang and Fortum companies, including production localization of components for wind turbines", - Sergey Morozov noted.

As the Vice-President of the Sichuan Development and Reform Commission, the Director-General of the Sichuan Energy Administration (People's Republic of China) Lei Kaiping explained, the Dongfang company will provide technologies and ensure localization, as well as technical support for creation of production of blades for wind turbines in the Ulyanovsk region.

"I would like to thank the Governor for the warm welcome and to say that our Government supports intentions of the Dongfang company to localize production in the Ulyanovsk region. We pay great attention to development of alternative power engineering and are ready to implement the cutting-edge technologies in your territory. We think that the cooperation between Dongfang and NanoCenter is merely the beginning. In future we can develop our priduction all around Russia thanks to this base. Let me also mention that a favorable investment climate has been created in the Ulyanovsk region and we are very pleased with it. We are ready to consider the possibility of implementation of joint projects in other spheres too", - Lei Kaiping commented.

According to the dedicated experts, considering that blades of modern wind mills are of considerable size - more than 50 meters - it is necessary to manufacture them near the future power plant. For the project's full development, it is necessary to develop production of towers, blades, electrical components and protective coatings in the region. The final cooperation framework and conditions for production localization will be approved in three months.

According to the CEO of the ULNANOTECH NanoCenter Andrey Redkin, the agreement with the Dongfang company is an important step for the Ulyanovsk region. "The region learned how to attract investors and now is doing it on purpose creating a new market which has never existed before - the wind power one. We intend to sign some more agreements with the large leading companies in the field of equipment manufacturing for wind power generation. The next step is to choose a regional partner that will start preparing the platform for production of turbines", - Andrey Redkin noted.

He reminded that in accordance with the decree of the Government of the Russian Federation and requirements of the Minpromtorg (Ministry of Industry and Trade), which regulate the market of renewable energy, the majority of components and basic materials for this field should be manufactured in Russia. The agreement with Dongfang provides localization of production of blades in the territory of the region.

The Government of the region is ready to provide all necessary support to the project and considers it as a specifically significant one, which will allow to grant benifits and preferences. "One of our priority tasks now is to attract new competences and the largest companies capable to initiate them, including the ones that provide manufactured goods to the markets. Dongfang is a good example: earlier we signed an agreement with the Fortum company on creation of a wind farm, and this helped to attract a Chinese investor to the region. The investor that produces equipment for wind turbines", - Sergey Vasin said.

In the Ulyanovsk region it is planned to build the Russia's first large wholesale wind farm. Its first stage will have output capacity of 35 MW, which will be later brought up to 350 MW. The energy company Fortum implements the project. The Ulyanovsk ULNANOTECH NanoCenter acts as the project integrator. Its task includes organization of the whole production chain for construction of wind generators. The RUSNANO Group plans to participate actively in wind power projects, including localization of production of components for wind turbines.