Interview with Ms. Sylwia Koch-Kopyszko
Ms. Sylwia Koch-Kopyszko—President, Green Energy
Co. Ltd., Poland.
—We have learned that the Consortium of the Capital Group Business Consulting Group, Green Energy Co. Ltd, Ekowind Co. from Poland and KV Venti Co. Ltd. from Czech Republic has signed in December 2009 the Memorandum of Understanding with the STX Windpower B.V. to build in Central Europe several wind farms of total capacity of more than 220 MW. Why your consortium has selected STX Windpower as the wind turbines
supplier for your project?
—There were two reasons, why we have selected STX Windpower. First reason was that the wind turbine, which is manufactured by them, which is direct drive 2 MW turbine, has several advantages compared with traditional wind turbine. Such as high efficiency- its output is about 10 % more efficient per unit area of rotor (no gear power loss, minimal energy loss at generator); reliable system, easy maintenance, low noises and good quality of grid connection. This type of product represents the developing trend of international wind turbine technology, and is popularly installed in Netherlands (Lagerway), Finland, Germany, Japan, China and Taiwan.
Second reason was that STX Windpower belongs to STX Corporation, which is a global corporation that manages four business areas: shipping & trading, shipbuilding & machinery, plant &construction, and energy.
STX Pan Ocean is a world-class shipping company, STX Offshore & Shipbuilding is one of the world’s foremost shipbuilders, and STX Engine is one of the world’s top three manufacturers.
Therefore we believe that the newly established STX Windpower, as the result of acquisition of Harakosan Europe B.V, by STX Corporation, has enormous capacity to grow using the synergies resulting from being the part of perfectly vertically integrated group. To give you the idea about STX capacities, I will just mention one example recently STX Europe delivered the world’s largest and most innovative cruise ship, the Oasis of the Seas, at Turku Shipyard in Finland. The Oasis of the Seas with 225,000 GT has a length of 360m, a breadth of 47m and a depth of 72m. The ship can accommodate 6,360 passengers and 2,100 crewmembers with 2,704 staterooms. The ship is priced at 1.013 billion euros; its cost is equivalent to seven or eight megacontainer ships.STX is well known for its “ speedy management”, which is one of the corporation three principles, along with customer-oriented management and technology management. The heart of the “ STX” “ speedy management” is their ability to be first to achieve goals by staying a step ahead of others and having the insight to see in the future. When STX Corporation says that it wants to achieve the aim of becoming one of the world’s top 10 wind turbine makers by 2015, with targeted sales of $1.2bn, our Consortium is ready to do all what is within our capacities to help them to achieve this ambitious goal.
—In what way you want to cooperate with the STX on developing a 220 MW scale wind power plant complex in Central and Eastern Europe?
—The wind energy market potential in Central and Eastern Europe is very big. Five countries—Poland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania—have an estimated wind potential capacity of 26.7 GW. The macro environment for renewable energy has improved in Central and Eastern Europe since 2003, with electricity prices now in line with the average price in the EU–15. Electricity demand has remained constant in CEE markets,with price increases being driven by replacement of ageing fossil and nuclear capacity, rising gas prices and price increases following market liberalization. Although Hungary and the Czech Republic lead the way with the most generous tariff schemes, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania appear to be the most likely targets for rapid, large-scale expansion, as they have reasonably high tariffs, pro-wind governments and significant areas of good wind resources. This environment is encouraging independent developers and multinational companies to acquire and invest in development pipelines often alongside their acquisition of electricity generation and distribution companies.
One of the obstacles in wind farm development in is lengthy authorization process in CEE countries. In some countries like Hungary the lead-time for overall procedure tends to exceed three years. Besides in some countries rejection rates exceed 70%, with missing grid capacity being the crucial factor for rejections. In order to implement our common goal with STX, that is to deliver and install about 140 units of both 2 MW and 1.5 MW
gearless wind power facilities throughout Eastern Europe—Poland, Rumania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria—during the period between 2010 and 2013 in different phases, we will build different sizes of independent wind power plant complexes throughout 40 MW and 120 MW-scaled complexes in Eastern Europe.
To speed up this process, we will not only use the wind farm projects, which the Consortium has in its portfolio but also we will invite independent wind farm developers, who has already got the construction permit from the authorities for their projects to cooperate with us. We will either purchase their projects or invite them to cooperate with us in wind farms further development and construction. We will arrange the necessary financing for the wind farm projects and the construction using expe-rienced engineering companies in our consortium, which have many years of experience in development, construction and operation of wind farms in our region. After the wind farms will be fully operational we will be gradually transferring them to local and multinational power companies and begin develop new wind farm projects.
—Could you tell us more about engineering companies, who are members of your Consortium?
—Our Czech partner KV VENTI Co. Ltd., leading Czech company in wind farm development and construction, has many years of experience in wind farm projects in Czech Republic, Central and Eastern Europe and Vietnam. In the years of 1992–1993 the owner of the company Mr. Jozefy, participated in construction of the first wind turbine in the Czech Republic. He has visited a number of European producers of wind turbines (Vestas, Enercon, NEG Micon, Lagerway, Nordex, HSW, Jacobs, Bonus) and wind parks in Europe as well as in the USA (California,Nevada, Texas, Arizona).
KV Venti is specialized in wind project preparation, building realization and subsequent operating of wind farms. It also provides maintenance and servicing of wind turbines. The company has TUV SUD certificates for quality, ecology and safety since 2007. They have raised more than 130 MW wind farm projects in Czech Republic, Slovakia and Vietnam, They are operating 440 MW wind farm in Czech Republic and 30 MW in Vietnam. The company has evaluated localities for wind farm project for total capacity of more than 1200 MW.
Our Polish engineering company Ekowind—leading Polish company in wind turbine installation and wind farm construction is dedicated to seeing that wind energy projects are planned and wind farms installed. Ekowind has many years of experience in wind energy business. Ekowind provides clients with the know-how necessary for planning and installing wind energy projects of every size. Their services comprise the site evaluation: wind conditions, electrical connection, access roads, necessary distances to dwellings in respect to noise, questions about regional development. Ekowind acts as a general contractor of the wind farm construction, supervising the building companies that do the foundation work, build access roads etc., as well as, the electrical companies, which do the wind farm cabling and electrical connections. Ekowind also provides maintenance and
servicing of built wind turbines.
—Last but not least could you tell us more about the leader of the Consortium—Capital Group “Business Consulting Group”?
—Capital Group “Business Consulting Group” according to “Forbes” magazine ranking belongs to the best EU fund raising and financing consultants in Poland. They have developed a unique level of know-how through performing a large number of EU funding application and reviews of renewable energy and wind farm projects, covering potential weak points of a project and enabling any defects or risks to be discovered and steps to be taken to avoid them. Their experience and knowledge will contribute to establishment of the most efficient way of the Consortium cooperation with the STX Corporation and creating the STX a global wind energy company.
Contact:
Sylwia Koch-Kopyszko
President
Green Energy Co. Ltd., Sp. k.,
Al. Ujazdowskie 18, lok. 8, 00–478 Warszawa,
phone: + 48 22 621 63 66, fax: + 48 22 696 52 72,
mobile: + 48 606 22 88 59,
e-mail: [email protected]
