Scottish small wind turbine manufacturer Gaia-Wind today celebrated 1000 of its world class turbines rolling off the production line since the company moved its operations from Denmark to Glasgow in 2011.

Scottish small wind turbine manufacturer Gaia-Wind today celebrated 1000 of its world class turbines rolling off the production line since the company moved its operations from Denmark to Glasgow in 2011. The milestone takes place as Scottish Economy Secretary Keith Brown announced national export figures at the companys Glasgow factory and Gaia—Wind reported on new orders for Japan and Italy.

The 1000th turbine marks the beginning of a relationship with Scottish Water Horizons Ltd, a commercial subsidiary of Scottish Water, who are rapidly growing their renewable energy portfolio across the Scottish Water estate.
Over the last eighteen Months Gaia-Wind has:
• Won the Scottish Green Energy Award for Exports;
• Achieved certification of its G-W133 turbine in Japan and opened a Japanese subsidiary; (Gaia-Wind KK)
• Exported more than 90% of production for the 2nd consecutive year; and
• Were finalists in the Scottish Export Awards.

Gaia-wind turbines are now installed in Tonga, Japan, Australia, USA, the Caribbean, Sweden, Denmark and Italy as well as all over the UK. By 2020 Gaia-Wind turbines are set to deliver a good economic return in almost every global market without any form of government subsidy.

CEO Johnnie Andringa said:
"We are thrilled to have reached this massive milestone which marks a terrific reward for the hard work of our team here at Gaia-Wind. We are proud to be working with Scottish Water Horizons and look forward to playing a role in their renewable energy development in the future and the Scottish Government support for renewables has been very important to us and to the farm scale wind industry.
Economy Secretary Keith Brown said:
"I am very pleased to hear that Gaia-Winds turbine production has reached 1000. They are an excellent example of quality turbines produced in Scotland. Gaia Wind's product can help make renewable energy more accessible to more people and organisations as we can see from their work with Scottish Water which is just beginning."

Head of Scottish Water Horizons, Andrew MacDonald said:
"We have now committed in excess of £50m in sustainable energy production. This is the latest in a series of investments that we have made as we continue to benefit from Scotlands natural resources in a way which helps to protect our environment, work with a great Scottish business and reduce our operating costs."

Scottish Water Horizons Project Manager Ian Piggott added:
"Gaia-Winds 1000th turbine, soon to be installed at Scottish Waters Waste Water Treatment Works in Chapelton, South Lanarkshire, has the potential to offset around 30% of the sites electricity consumption and is a demonstration of how we can contribute to Scotlands sustainable growth."
Andringa continued:
"Gaia-Wind, in common with our competitors, has had to look at the world market to continue our growth. Our export focussed strategy has enabled us to grow the share of export business for every year since 2012 enabling us to open or increase sales in, Italy, Denmark, the US, Australia, France and Israel. Our investment in a network of partners in Japan is drawing in orders now that we have passed all regulatory hurdles for entering this very attractive clean energy market.
At 16,109 kilometres from our Glasgow manufacturing base, our turbine on Tonga sets the distance record for a Gaia-Wind export order. We see a strong and global market opportunity for renewable power generation in island economies like Tonga."
"Gaia-Wind set out in 2011, to concentrate growth around a single location. The move was designed to completely integrate all aspects of the process from R&D, design engineering, production and testing, as well as global distribution and supply chain management in a new worldwide manufacturing and distribution centre."
"The last five years have been a roller coaster of changes in markets for Farm Scale renewables at home and abroad. Having witnessed a series of ham-fisted UK Government interventions in the support regime which created a very challenging market in the UK, we have been growing export markets and can now report that over 90% of sales are overseas - Denmark and Italy in particular,"
"The most exciting result of our continuous R&D investment is that Gaia-Wind is now delivering turbines that compete with the retail price of electricity in several markets. By 2020 our turbines will deliver a good economic return in almost every global market without any form of government subsidy."
"When this turbine is installed we will boast some 1500 Gaia-Wind turbines "in the ground" for a combined operational time of more than 25 million hours. That's over 2,500 years of dependable, renewable energy generation: In Denmark, almost 100 Gaia-Wind turbines have been running for more than 10 years. These turbine will have contributed more than 40,000 MWhrs of green electricity, - energy independence for their owners and that much less strain on the grid."
Notes
1. For further information, email martin.paterson@patersoncomms.co.uk or call 07920715345 or visit Gaia-Wind.com
2. Photos available