Gamesa Corporación Tecnológica (formerly
), is a manufacturing company principally involved in the fabrication of
wind turbineA wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device may be called a wind generator or wind charger. If the mechanical energy is used to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or...
s and the construction of
wind farmA wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electric power. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines, and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles, but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other...
s.
Its was formerly headquartered in
Vitoria-GasteizVitoria-Gasteiz is the capital city of the province of Álava and of the autonomous community of the Basque Country in northern Spain with a population of 235,661 people. It is the second largest Basque city...
,
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, but subsequently moved in 2010 to
ZamudioZamudio is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of Basque Country, northern Spain.-External links:* * in Basque and Spanish*...
,
BiscayBiscay is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lord of Biscay. Its capital city is Bilbao...
in northern Spain. Gamesa develops, manages and sells wind farms, for which it also supplies wind turbines. It is the market leader in Spain and is the second largest company
in the sector worldwide with a market share of 15.5 % in 2008. Due to the rapid expansion of Chinese manufacturers, Gamesa descended to sixth place with an estimated 6.7% of the marketplace in 2009.
The company has installed more than 10,000 MW of production in four continents, saving the equivalent of 51.9 millions of tons of
carbon dioxideCarbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
annually. It presently has over 20,000 MW of production in development in Europe, America and Asia and it is also involved in the construction and development of photovoltaic power stations.
History
Gamesa began operations in 1976 focused at that time on developing new technologies and applying them to emerging activities. These included
roboticsRobotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...
,
microelectronicsMicroelectronics is a subfield of electronics. As the name suggests, microelectronics relates to the study and manufacture of very small electronic components. Usually, but not always, this means micrometre-scale or smaller,. These devices are made from semiconductors...
,
aeronauticsAeronautics is the science involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of airflight-capable machines, or the techniques of operating aircraft and rocketry within the atmosphere...
and the development of
composite materialComposite materials, often shortened to composites or called composition materials, are engineered or naturally occurring materials made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties which remain separate and distinct at the macroscopic or...
s. In 1994, Gamesa Eólica was created as a subsidiary specializing in the manufacture of wind turbines. The company became involved in the development, construction and operations of wind farms in 1995 and completed its first wind farm the following year.
The Corporation was officially listed on the stock exchange on October 31, 2000 and joined the select
IBEX 35The IBEX 35 is the benchmark stock market index of the Bolsa de Madrid, Spain's principal stock exchange. Initiated in 1992, the index is administered and calculated by Sociedad de Bolsas, a subsidiary of Bolsas y Mercados Españoles , the company which runs Spain's securities markets...
on April 24, 2001.
Since 2006, the company has focused on technologies associated with
sustainable energySustainable energy is the provision of energy that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Sustainable energy sources include all renewable energy sources, such as hydroelectricity, solar energy, wind energy, wave power, geothermal...
, principally
wind powerWind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....
. It has divested of its interests in aeronautics, which were sold off to form a new company known as
Aernnova, and in services, which were sold off to form a new company known as
Global Energy Services.
As part of the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's move to expand its production of offshore wind energy production, Gamesa has committed to the expenditure of £133.7M on a production factory and other facilities in the UK, and will also move its offshore wind division headquarters to London.
Recognition
Gamesa is listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, the
FTSE4Good IndexThe FTSE4Good Index series is a series of ethical investment stock market indices launched in 2001 by the FTSE Group. A number of stock market indices are available, for example covering UK shares, US shares, European markets, and Japan, with inclusion based on a range of corporate social...
x which is concerned with
corporate social responsibilityCorporate social responsibility is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model...
on the
KLD Global Climate 100 IndexGlobal Energy Network Institute is a research and education organization founded by Peter Meisen in 1986 and registered as a 501 non-profit organization in 1991...
, and on the Global 100 Index of the 100 most sustainable companies in the world.
Current projects
Gamesa is involved in the construction of the
Allegheny Ridge Wind FarmThe Allegheny Ridge Wind Farm is Pennsylvania's largest operational wind farm. The wind farm was built by Gamesa and encompasses parts of Cambria and Blair counties north of Blue Knob Mountain near Altoona. It officially became operational in October 2007 and has 40 wind turbines, each of a 2 MW...
and the
Mt Stuart Wind FarmThe Mt Stuart Wind Farm is a wind farm in New Zealand being constructed by Pioneer Generation. It is located 15 kilometres west of Milton in the Otago Region of the South Island....
.
See also
- Wind power
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....
- Wind power in Spain
Spain is the world's fourth biggest producer of wind power, after China, the United States and Germany, with an installed capacity of 19,959 megawatts at the end of 2010, a rise of 1,609 MW for the year...
- Wind power in the United States
As of the third quarter of 2011, the cumulative installed capacity of wind power in the United States was 43,461 megawatts , making it second in the world, behind China. In 2010 wind power accounted for 2.3% of the electricity generated in the United States...
- Wind power in the European Union
According to the European Wind Energy Association report of February 2011, there are over 12,000 wind turbines in Europe with a total capacity of 84 GW. The European Union accounts for over 98% of that total. In 2010, €12.7 billion was invested in EU wind farms and 9.3 GW of new power capacity was...
- Wind power in China
At the end of 2010, wind power in the People's Republic of China accounted for 41.8 gigawatts of electricity generating capacity, and China has identified wind power as a key growth component of the country's economy. With its large land mass and long coastline, China has exceptional wind...
- Wind power in the United Kingdom
By mid-2011, the installed capacity of wind power in the United Kingdom was over 5.7 gigawatts and the UK is ranked as the world’s eighth largest producer of wind power. Wind power is expected to continue growing in the UK for the foreseeable future, RenewableUK estimates that more than...
- List of wind turbine manufacturers
- REpower
REpower is a German wind turbine company founded in 2001, purchased December 2009 by Suzlon Energy Ltd. Its product range comprises several types of turbines with rated outputs of between 1.5 and 6 megawatts. It created the 5M, in 2005....
- Vestas
Vestas Wind Systems A/S is a Danish manufacturer, seller, installer, and servicer of wind turbines. It is the largest in the world, but due to very rapid growth of its competitors, its market share decreased from 28% in 2007 to 12.5% in 2009...
External links