One of the most prominent wind energy developers in Australia, France’s Neoen, says it is considering a switch to Chinese made turbines because it has issues with the price, service and quality of the western manufacturers that have traditionally led the industry.
Neoen is behind some of Australia’s leading wind projects, including the Hornsdale, Bulgana and Kaban wind farms, and is currently building the Goyder South wind project in South Australia and a number of other projects in the pipeline. It is also heavily invested in solar and battery storage.
The issue of wind turbine supplies came up in an investor briefing overnight after Neoen released its nine-month revenue figures, and CEO Xavier Barbaro said the company may choose a Chinese supplier for one of its future projects in Australia because it was not happy with the offerings of western suppliers.
“We do see today … some equivalence between the quality of Chinese turbines and Western turbines and we see, of course, more competitive prices coming from those potential suppliers,” Barbaro said.
“We will certainly, in the near future, start using Chinese turbines. It will first happen in Australia, but I’m sure that it could happen at some point in Europe, and then we’ll see.”
Barbaro did not mention any Western suppliers by name, but in the past the company has sourced turbines from most of the leading makers, including Vestas at its Hornsdale and Kaban wind farms, Siemens Gamesa at Bulgana, and GE Renewables at the nearly completed Goyder South wind project.
“It’s really in the hands of the Western suppliers to decide what they want to do with their future,” Barbaro said. “At the moment, they are enjoying together a nice oligopoly and that’s something that, of course …we’ll have to change.
“The reason why we are going to work with Chinese suppliers is precisely to escape the situation where we have high prices, and let’s put it this way, not always a great service, and not always even a great quality.”
Barbaro said the company has visited Chinese wind turbine makers Goldwind and Envision in April, and again recently, and while it had not yet visited the facilities of emerging wind turbine provide Minyang it planned to do so.
“It’s an occasion for us to have more competitive pricing and to also have access to turbines with interesting features,” he said.
Neoen has a number of wind projects under early development, including the recently approved Thunderbolt renewable hub in NSW, the potential 900 MW Bondo project in a NSW state-owned pine forest, and the newly unveiled Goyder North project that could include another 1,000 MW of wind capacity.
