New blade factory

1 June 2001

German-Danish wind company Nordex has laid the foundation stone for a rotor blade production facility at its Rostock works which by the end of 2002 will be producing 300 blades annually, "enough to cover a good part of the company's requirements for megawatt sized turbines."

The 12,000 square metre factory will cost about DEM 31million and open in the autumn with initially 100 employees, rising to 140 over the following twelve months. Nordex currently employs 650 people worldwide, half of them at Rostock. Until now it has bought blades mainly from LM in Denmark, the world's leading blade maker.

Nordex began blade development at the end of 1999. It has concentrated on 31 metre and 40 metre blades for large turbines, the longest for the N80 2.5 MW machine. A 55 metre blade is to follow, designed for the 5 MW turbine that Nordex is developing in partnership with Repower Systems for the offshore market (story right). "The proximity of the blade factory to the port of Rostock is of decisive significance for our logistics," comments Nordex chairman Dietmar Kestner.