Scots magnate Jim McColl’s Moventas Group upgrades UK gearbox workshop to cut wind turbine servicing costs

Moventas Gears UK – the wind turbine gear-box manufacturing and service company which is owned by Scottish business magnate and prominent SNP supporter Jim McColl – is in the final stages of refurbishing and upgrading its workshop in Huddersfield, Yorks.

Moventas – formerly DB Wind – is the first gearbox service partner in the UK to provide multi megawatt full load testing, which is an essential part of most gearbox service operations.

From now on, serviced gearboxes in turbines made by well-known manufacturers no longer need to be sent to mainland Europe for testing, which minimises logistics costs and carbon footprint.

The gearbox specialist has made a capital investment in a 3.6 MW load test rig, flexibly designed to accommodate Moventas’ multi-brand service approach.

Moventas Chairman Jim McColl, also head of ClydeBlowers – said: “With 35 years of wind turbine gearbox experience, industry leading technology and state of the art manufacturing facilities, Moventas is ideally placed to support the servicing of the UK installed base of wind turbines from its modern, well equipped service facility in the centre of the country.

“The UK wind industry can benefit from our highly qualified service team, experienced in the service and repair of gearboxes for all makes of MMW wind turbines.”

Clyde Blowers Capital Ltd, the global industrial engineering group owned by McColl, bought the Finland-based Moventas Group for €100 million in 2011. The group employs more than 1,000 people in 10 countries.

Moventas is able to service as many as 20 different turbine brands’ gearboxes, which adds up to 60 models. Focusing on the most popular fleets, Moventas UK covers a large aspect of the market in the area: Vestas V80 and V90, Senvion MM82 and MM92, Nordex N80 and N90 as well as the Siemens 2.3.

Moventas UK’s field service team can perform a number of up-tower jobs and offers local condition management expertise. Moventas’ objective is to extend gearbox life on existing fleets, contributing to cost-savings of wind O&M – thereby lowering the cost of wind energy.