Spotlight on Gamesa

It was back in 1994 that Gamesa commenced the engineering, design, manufacturing and sale of wind turbines. Two years later saw the start-up of the development, construction and sale of wind farms in Aragon with the La Plana III wind farm development. They also managed the El Perdón wind farm, located in Navarre, Spain, using 15 G39-500 kW and 25 G42-600 kW wind turbines. In 1998 Gamesa extended its operations outside of Spain by managing a G42-600 kW wind turbine in the Guerrero Negro wind farm, in Baja California, Mexico.

Two years later Gamesa further expanded its international footprint by engaging in projects in Portugal, Italy, France, Greece, Germany, Ireland, the UK, the US and China. In 2005 Gamesa started up its first production facility in the US (Ebensburg, Pennsylvania) and also in China with a turbine factory located in Tianjin. In Portugal, there was the inauguration of the largest wind farm in Portugal, with a capacity of 80 MW. Two years later saw the company lead the Egyptian wind market.

La Plana III wind farm Spain 300x2001 Spotlight on Gamesa
La Plana wind farm

In 2008 the first prototype of the Gamesa 4.5 MW was revealed and construction work began on the first wind farm developed by Gamesa in China. That year also saw a strategic alliance between Gamesa and Iberdrola Renovables.

By the end of the decade, Gamesa announced an industrial project in Brazil to make Mercosur one of its new core markets and also its plans to base the Worldwide Centre of its Offshore business in the UK. A year later in 2011 Type certification from GL was given for the Gamesa G128-4.5 MW wind turbine, the then most powerful device on the onshore wind energy market. In 2012 Gamesa entered three new markets: Finland, (under a framework agreement to supply 135 MW using 4.5 MW turbines); Nicaragua (a turnkey installation of a 44 MW wind farm) and Uruguay, (with an agreement to supply 50 MW to Abengoa). Further expansion occurred over 2013-14 and in particular, there was Type certification for the G128-5.0 MW, Gamesa’s first offshore turbine.

Gamesa turbine Spotlight on Gamesa

To the present day where we find that Gamesa has cemented its leadership position in some of the most attractive and fast-emerging markets around the world: Gamesa is the top-ranked original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in India (32% of the market) as well as Mexico where the company has an overwhelming share of 73%.

At the first-ever international renewable energy investors summit organized by India’s Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE), Gamesa pledged to manufacture at least 7.5 GW worth of wind turbines over the next 5-7 years. In this way, it will contribute to India’s goal to virtually treble its existing wind power capacity by 2022. To achieve this target Gamesa announced an investment of €100 million. In Mexico, as a manufacturer, the company has supplied 1.36 GW of wind turbines in the country. It’s been estimated that nearly 66% of all wind turbines sold worldwide by Gamesa have been installed in Latin America and India. These two regions have been central to the company’s core growth over the last few years.