Alstom enters wind power market

Alstom says it is taking a significant step into wind power generation with the signature of an agreement to buy Spanish wind turbine company, Ecotècnia for €350m. Ecotècnia, headquartered in Barcelona, designs, assembles and installs a range of onshore wind turbines spanning 640kW to 2MW. It is currently developing new wind turbines with a capacity of up to 3MW. According to Alstom, the company has taken a significant part of the development of the Spanish wind energy market, which is ranked second in Europe, and currently generates about 50% of its sales from other European countries.

To date, Ecotècnia has installed or is installing more than 1500 wind turbines in 72 wind farms, corresponding to a total capacity of 1,433MW (about 2% of the worldwide installed base). Ecotècnia has also recently become active in the field of solar panels. Alstom's acquisition of Ecotècnia will be finalised once the legal consultations and the procedures necessary to modify the company's structure have been successfully completed. Ectotècnia is currently a cooperative and will be transformed into a limited liability company prior to the planned acquisition by Alstom.