Beothuk Energy to start making wind turbine foundations

Sep 23, 2013 - Canadian firm Beothuk Energy Inc said Friday it plans to initiate production of gravity-based foundations for offshore wind turbines at Canada’s Corner Brook port and ship to Atlantic Canada and the northeastern US.

The company and its partner Corner Brook Port Corp are in the evaluation and pre-planning phases of selecting a suitable location at the port to construct the manufacturing facility. Beothuk explained that gravity-based foundations are lower-risk, require less expenses and are more versatile as compared to conventional wind turbine foundations. The company's intention is to produce, deliver and operate offshore wind parks with gravity-based structures as foundations.

Corner Brook’s deep-water port was chosen for the project as it offers good access to the key energy markets of the US and Canada and because its shipping facilities can be used both for import of turbines and export of the finished machines. According to the US Department of Energy (DOE), up to 900,000 MW of coastal wind parks could be installed in the US, potentially bringing more than USD 100 billion (EUR 93.9bn) in revenues.

Beothuk also just presented a plan to pour about CAD 400 million (USD 388m/EUR 287m) into a 180-MW pilot wind park in the Gulf of St Lawrence in the Atlantic Ocean.

(CAD 1.0 = USD 0.971/EUR 0.718)

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