Mayflower Wins $105 Million UK Wind Farm Contract

Mayflower Corporation, the engineering group best known for making buses, is poised to sign a £70($105m) million contract to install a major wind farm six miles off the coast of Anglesey.

The contract, thought to be the largest wind farm deal in the UK, covers the installation of thirty wind turbines. The farm, which will be owned by RWE, the aquisitive German utilities group, will supply electricity to 50,000 homes.

The deal marks the first order for Mayflower’s e3 Energy division, which was formed about 18 months ago amid some scepticism from analysts. It also marks RWE’s most significant move in the UK after its £3.1 billion purchase earlier this year of Innogy, the UK electricity supplier.

Mayflower has won the windfarm contract in partnership with Vestas Group, the Danish wind turbine manufacturer which is quoted on the Copenhagen stock exchange and has a factory in Scotland.

The deal suggests that e3’s gamble of commissioning a turbine installation ship before winning any installation work has paid off. The ship, currently under construction in China, promises to revolutionise the construction of offshore windfarms. The vessel rests on six telescopic legs that lift the ship out of the water and hold it steady while the wind turbines are installed in the seabed.

©

&to=http://www.mayf.co.uk/' target=_blank>Mayflower Corporation