Alstom will establish a Global Hydro Technology Centre in Brazil, with a special focus on Kaplan turbines. The company will invest around 6 million euros in this initiative. The announcement was made on 29 November by Patrick Kron, CEO and Chairman of Alstom, directly to the Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, in a meeting in Brasília.
The Global Technology Centre will be located in Taubaté (SP) where the company has its largest hydro factory in the world, capable to manufacture all electromechanical equipment for hydro power plants for Brazil and export. Alstom holds around 40% of the hydro power solutions market in Brazil.
The Global Technology Centre – Taubaté will focus on Kaplan solutions for Alstom Hydro worldwide and will be composed of an R&D team and a test rig. The R&D team of the Global Technology Centre will start its activities in Taubaté early 2012 and the test rig is expected to be operational on mid 2013. R&D specialists from France will work together with Brazilians during the first years of implementation. After this transition period, it is expected to have only Brazilian professionals, improving national know-how and investing in local empowerment.
The test rig of the Global Technology Centre – Taubaté will be prepared to test Kaplan turbines for projects located mainly in Brazil and Asia and will research and develop (R&D) Kaplan projects. Brazil is responsible for 45% of the future worldwide Kaplan market and 80% together with Asia.
Alstom is already active on the Brazilian Kaplan turbines market and recently signed a contract to Santo Antonio do Jari project, for a power plant located in North region of Brazil. Alstom has successful references in Brazil such as Porto Primavera with CESP. In China, the company has successfully implemented the Long Kou project, which works well since almost 2 years.
“With this Global Technology Centre in Taubaté, Alstom will put Brazil in the map of the countries that are reference in technology and responsible for exporting knowledge. We are willing to give more visibility to Brazilian engineering capabilities and to show all the innovative potential of Brazil. The Technology Centre will also be a way to establish long term relationship with local universities, to sponsor research programs and to invest in developments in partnership with students” , says Philippe Delleur, President of Alstom Brazil.
Kaplan turbines are ideal to low head hydraulic projects (up to 60 m) and is capable to adapt itself to the amount of water in the river, which allows production all over the year, in the periods of full or even low capacity. This kind of turbine is better for the environment because it can be used with smaller reservoirs, less flooded areas and is a very performant solution for run-of-river dams, which are the case for the Brazilian future market.
Alstom turbines, generators and equipment account for approximately 25% of worldwide hydropower generation. The company’s network of hydro Global Technology Centres was created to capitalize on areas of specific regional expertise and leverage that knowledge to benefit customers around the world by providing effective solutions in terms of cost, technology and environmental considerations. Other GTCs in the Alstom hydro network include the high-tech scale model test laboratory in Grenoble, France (lead centre), the Pelton turbine-testing centre in Vadodara, India, the GTC specializing in generators in Birr, Switzerland, and the recently announced GTC in Sorel-Tracy, Canada, serving as the company’s global hub for innovation in hydro retrofit processes and technology.
Source: Alstom
