Nordex Invests in Türkiye, Vestas Wins First V182 Order

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

Welcome to Uptime News Flash, Industry News, Lightning Fast. Your host, Allen Hall, shares the renewable industry news you may have missed.

Allen Hall (0:15)

Happy Monday, everyone. Well, in Pennsylvania this past week, two wind farms got a second life, and nobody poured a single new foundation. Now, hold that thought for a moment. This week, the wind industry kept asking one question. Where do you build? Let's start in Europe. Chinese turbine makers have a problem. They dominate solar. They dominate batteries. But in Western Europe, every major wind project still buys turbines from Vestas, Siemens, or Nordex, and occasionally GE Vernova. So the Chinese are trying a new door, a joint venture. Envision and Ming Yang both say they would partner with European companies to build turbines in Europe. Envision's chief product officer says they are prepared and willing. Its offshore chief hinted that talks may have already started. And they probably have. Ming Yang still prefers its own factory, but Britain blocked that plan in Scotland earlier this year. So a local partner is Plan B. It is the same play Chinese car makers used in Spain.

Same playbook, same problem. So go south to Turkey. Nordex is not waiting for a partner there. The German turbine maker put 70 million euros into Turkey this year. All of its own money, no loans and no incentives. A new factory near Izmir is building turbines now. 400 roughly a year. 820 workers today. About 1200 by year's end. A second factory is built and waiting for equipment.

And here is the number that matters. Nordex buys 1 billion euros of parts from Turkish suppliers every year. Nordex says that is 60 to 70% of everything made for wind in Turkey.

Then it shits many of those parts to other countries. Next month, Nordex will chase a big share of a 1500 megawatt onshore tender.

Interesting. Now, East to India. Finnish composite maker XL Composites just signed a deal with Suzlon. XL's Indian joint venture will make carbon fiber planks for Suzlon's blade spar caps. The deal could top 100 million euros through March of 2029

It started small, 10 million euros in 2025, and back then, Suzlon would not even let XL use its name. Now, it's 10 times bigger, and it's public. Every plank will come from one factory in India. Close to the customer, close to the market. Smart move. Back to Europe, in a turbine that is new, but not too new. Vestas just booked the first order for its V182 7.2 megawatt turbine. Four machines are going to sell, 29 megawatts. The Staverhut project in southern Sweden will take those turbines. The V182 sits on the Inventus platform, and Vestas says it upgraded only what adds value for customers. Nothing more. Serial production begins at the end of 2027

And there's a service deal. 35 year long service deal. Wow.

Now up to Pennsylvania, where the newest wind farms sit on old towers. Exis Renewables just finished repowering two wind farms in Cambria County. Nearly 140 megawatts. There's new nacelles, new blades, new generators, but the same towers and the same foundations. The work adds 30 more years to farms that already ran nearly 20 years. Financing, about $356 million dollars, and who's buying that power?

A Fortune 500 technology company. Take your guess, right? Exis says buyers like repowered sites because they skip the long wait to connect a new project. And data centers are very hungry, and they do not want to wait in a line.

So what should wind professionals take from this past week first? Local content is no longer a political favor. It is the price of entry. Nordex owns most of Turkey's wind supply chain, and the Chinese know that and want the same thing in Europe. And if you make towers, castings, or blades in Europe, expect a phone call from a Chinese company.

You better decide now what your answer will be. Second, buyers are paying for certainty, not novelty. Vestas only changed what it had to. And Exis kept the steel that was already in the ground in Pennsylvania for their re-power projects. You see, the fastest megawatt in America is the one that is already connected to the grid. Thousands of turbines from the early 2000s are reaching the re-power age right about now. And that is really the next big market.

And lastly, do the math on the service deal. The 35 year commitment is quite long. And a lot of operators are thinking about the length of their service contracts right about now. And that is the state of the wind industry for the 28th of September, 2026 Join us for The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast tomorrow.