Norvento seeks permits for 18 mid-scale wind projects in UK

Norvento, a Spanish renewable energy company that makes 100-kW wind turbines, has submitted 12 new projects in the UK for planning permission and is to submit another six by the end of the third quarter, it said on Thursday.

The sites will have a combined capacity of 1.9 MW and include farms, factories, seaports and commercial buildings. Norvento said this was the largest push so far for its 100-kW nED100 turbine portfolio in the UK. Having installed its first UK machine in January 2014, the company will have a total of 11 turbines in the country by September and add four more in the next quarter. It aims to build a 4-MW portfolio, which it says will secure it a status as a significant medium-scale wind power provider. The nED100 is initially being sold and deployed in the UK.

Norvento said that with the UK feed-in tariff (FiT)-supported onshore wind market facing a number of challenges, its low-noise, direct-drive technology was in a good position for rapid planning approval and permission. As part of a move to control renewables cost, the UK government last month announced plans to remove preliminary accreditation from the FiT, meaning that complex projects taking longer to build could face lower-than-expected tariff levels when they reach completion. This year, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is also undertaking a full review of the FiT scheme.

"Despite significant challenges within the UK's renewable energy sector, we're finding that there is still substantial interest in the small to medium wind market," said Ivo Arnus, Norvento director of UK business development.

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