More doing well out of being green by ABB

I found this release especially fascinating since I am making my first visit to Shanghai on Monday. I will be in Shanghai attending the Advantech World Partner Conference next week. I'll be back on the 29th. I don't know if I will have Internet connectivity, so Nancy Bartells, Dan Hebert, Jim Montague, and Joe Weiss have volunteered to take over Soundoff! if I don't post anything for a while. I'll be back in form on Halloween.

ABB wind products ride the storm in China's largest wind farm

China's largest wind farm - equipped with power products from ABB - passed the test of storm-force winds on the East coast of China last month with flying colors. Built by the Jiangsu Longyuang Wind Power Co., the farm's turbines are designed to deal with 90 km/h gales, so at 50 km/h, winds brought by typhoon Wipha did no more than boost productivity. Zurich, Switzerland, October 12, 2007 --- When typhoon Wipha hit China's eastern seaboard just south of Shanghai last month, schools were closed and dozens of flights were postponed amid warnings of torrential rains and strong winds. During such serious storms, wind farms have to shut down to avoid damage to the turbines. Fortunately, by the time the storm arrived in Rudong County, 300 km to the north, Wipha's winds had slowed and the Jiangsu Longyuang wind farm was able to take full advantage. In 2004, after an extensive survey, the Chinese government identified the coast of Rudong County on the Yellow Sea, as a suitable location for a large-scale commercial wind farm. The government awarded a construction license to the Jiangsu Longyuang Wind Power Co., a subsidiary of the China Longyuang Electric Power Group, based in nearby Nantong. Wind projects like this are important. The World Bank estimates that China's air and water pollution, caused in large part by waste emissions from coal-fired power stations, costs the country around $100 billion a year, or 5.8 percent of GDP. Wind power offers an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels and will contribute to the country's ambitious targets to reduce green house gas emissions. China hopes to double its 2006 wind power capacity to 5,000 MW by 2010. Building work on the Jiangsu wind farm began in October 2005 and just 12 months later, the first turbines were feeding emissions-free wind power into the local grid, and helping to power local industries, including energy-intensive textile manufacturing, steel making and ship building. "Our parent company holds a leading market share of the Chinese wind industry," said Jin Ji, General Manager of the Jiangsu Longyuang Wind Power Co., which was set up to manage the project in Rudong. "ABB's reputation is well-known in China and it made sense for two leading companies to work together on this important development." ABB supplied power equipment including a compact secondary substation with distribution transformers and a ring main unit manufactured in China by ABB Shanghai Transformer Co., Ltd. and ABB Beijing High Voltage Switchgear Co., Ltd. The equipment is used to feed electricity from the farm into the local transmission network. Since the project began in 2005, 67 turbines with a total capacity of 100 megawatts (MW) have been erected at the Jiangsu site, at a cost of more than $130 million. Although the expense is significant, wind-power now competes with the cost of conventional generating methods and has significantly fewer disadvantages. The installation has now also proven its durability. While areas hit by the storm suffered power disruptions and flooding, the wind farm's turbines were unharmed. Although typhoons are rare in Rudong County, the turbines are designed to withstand severe wind conditions and frequent drenching with salt water blown in from the sea. Thanks to the region's persistently strong winds, the farm will feed around 230,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of clean electricity into the local grid each year and avoid almost 200,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. This equates to the annual emissions of more than 65,000 cars. As the world's leading supplier of electrical products, systems and services for wind power generation, ABB became involved in the Rudong project at an early stage. The Group's extensive experience enabled it to offer practical advice at both the planning and implementation stages of the new wind farm. The location was chosen for its exposed coast line and sparse population. Farm land in the area has been flooded with sea water to farm shrimps and crabs, which are undisturbed by the presence of the windmills. ABB has a number of reference projects in wind power generation around the world, and recently won a contract to connect the world's largest offshore wind farm to the German grid. With its broad wind-power portfolio and commitment to enhancing productivity while reducing environmental impact, ABB is well positioned to participate in China's drive to expand its wind power capacity. For more about ABB's involvement in the development of alternative energy sources, read the ABB Review on energy efficiency.