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Gaia-Wind Relocates to Glasgow with Great Success
Over the next twelve months, Dutch company Gaia-Wind will be installing almost 200, 133-11 kW small wind turbines in England and Wales. The company which relocated recently to Glasgow, announced a $8 million deal with renewable energy provider Myriad CEG Power to complete this project.
Gaia-Wind has traditionally been a company that manufactures small wind turbines that are ideal for working farms, rural businesses, rural properties, and public amenities. Schools, breweries, and small rural houses also make up some of their clients. Their turbine design has an oversized blade that allows it to capture much more energy, thereby generating greater earnings and earlier payback.
In recent tests conducted by the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Gaia-Wind 133-11kW wind turbine outperformed its nearest competitor by a factor of more than 2 to 1. A Gaia-Wind turbine, generating 30,000 units of green electricity per year, will offset around 17 tonnes of CO2 emissions. According to their website, this is enough to erase the carbon footprint of the average 4 person household.
Considering that electricity prices are set to rise 43 percent over the next ten years, Gaia-Wind is aligned to make electricity generation for small-scale owners as cost effective as possible. Average annual energy production on site is between 25,000 - 40,000 kWk and the payback time is currently between 4-8 years in the UK. All these statistics are bound to make the technology more attractive for owners.
In the US alone, the small wind turbine market added more than 25 MW in 2010. The country's total capacity for small wind power systems is around 180 MW. According to Pike Research, a firm specializing in clean technology markets, says: “The popularity of small wind power systems is not only growing in United States but also in global level and the global market for small wind systems should more than double between 2010 and 2015, to $634 million.”
The UK is said to have similar projections and with people wanting more renewable energy installations as well as subsidies, smaller turbines seems the way forward. Gaia-Wind's smaller wind turbines are designed to work in areas with lower wind speeds, thereby increasing their applications.
The company has over 20 years of experience in the wind energy field, giving them time to fine-tune the design of the turbine itself. One of the notable safety features includes stopping the blades when the wind speeds reach 56mph or above, to prevent over-speeding. The turbines are also virtually noiseless, making them ideal for their target market.
The company's recent relocation, to Glasgow from Denmark is also part of the reason for their recent growth. Scotland has an impressive renewable energy portfolio and Glasgow itself is aiming to become the hub of research, all proving very fortuitous for Gaia-Wind.
Image Credit: Gaia-Wind ©
Akhila is the Founding Director of GreenDen Consultancy which is dedicated to offering business analysis, reporting and marketing solutions powered by sustainability and social responsibility. Based in the US, Europe, and India, the GreenDen's consultants share the best practices and innovation from around the globe to achieve real results. She has previously written about CSR and ethical consumption for Justmeans and hopes to put a fresh spin on things for this column. As an IEMA certified CSR practitioner, she hopes to highlight a new way of doing business. She believes that consumers have the immense power to change 'business as usual' through their choices. She is a Graduate in Molecular Biology from the University of Glasgow, UK and in Environmental Management and Law. In her free-time she is a voracious reader and enjoys photography, yoga, travelling and the great outdoors. She can be contacted via Twitter @aksvi and also http://www.thegreenden.net
