Gaia-Wind Is Putting Down New Roots

November 30, 2010

Last week we announced that Gaia-Wind is creating a brand new production and worldwide distribution hub in Glasgow. This is a pretty big step for us and one which has been a long time in the planning.

We currently operate with offices in Glasgow and an assembly and distribution centre in Denmark. But the renewables market, for us of course the small wind turbine market, is growing – fast. We feel that Gaia-wind must be at the forefront of this exciting new development.

Having looked at a number of potential locations abroad, including Denmark and Italy, we decided to concentrate our growth around a single location within the company’s core UK market.

Scotland – and the UK, has a lot going for it when we talk about renewables. Government is committed to renewables and this can be seen in tangible ways. Recently there has been some confusion on the future for Feed in Tariffs (FITs) and how they might be affected by DECC cuts and EU rules on previous grants.

The FIT regime has since been clarified, so I am confident that e.g. receipt of previous EU grants should not bring reductions in FIT funds; also that FITs will be guaranteed for 20 years for turbines purchased before the next review scheduled for 2013. In the current investment environment the support of Scottish Enterprise has been vital and Scottish government backing for renewables has encouraged us throughout a difficult process.

So, this is a very significant investment which demonstrates, I think, our commitment to Scotland but also our ambition to operate on a global basis; with a substantial proportion of our world leading product destined for export to overseas markets. The new facility will handle the assembly, test and distribution of over 250 small wind turbines in 2011, which we expect to rise to 2000 units per year over the next few years. In 2009 more than 60% of Gaia-Wind products were for customers outside Scotland, in 2012 that will have grown to 80% of which more than 40% will be exported outside the UK.

Our great new “Global Hub” will enable us to place Research, Product Development, Sales, Marketing and Operations under one roof with final assembly and Factory Acceptance Tests.
With the potential to create more than 50 sustainable and high quality jobs over the next few years, it will also enhance the skills base in Scotland for Renewable Energy and strengthen the market for locally based distributors, suppliers and services. Many of these jobs will be in highly skilled positions in R&D, supply chain management and quality assurance

Gaia-Wind has almost three hundred turbines installed worldwide with a combined operational time of some nine million hours. We are starting to grow rapidly and we have recently established a solid presence in the massive US market. So: This is the right time for us to push forward, let’s get cracking!