Northern Power Systems, Inc. (www.northernpower.com), a next-generation wind turbine company and leading manufacturer of community scale wind turbines, today announced the shipment of its 100th Northwind® 100 turbine over the past year, highlighting a customer base that now includes owners in more than 15 U.S. states and four countries. This significant milestone combined with strong projected sales for 2010 illustrates the exceptional growth in the community scale wind market.
"The shipment of our 100th Northwind sends a powerful message – our proven wind power technology is providing real cost savings, emissions reductions and energy security for businesses, schools, farms and communities around the world," said Parthiv Amin, President of Community Wind at Northern Power Systems. "Our achievement firmly establishes Northern Power as the leader in the expanding community scale wind market and we expect continued growth in 2010."
With installations that include a high school in Wisconsin, a printing press in Connecticut, a hospital in the United Kingdom and rugged remote village settings in Alaska, Northern Power's 100kW turbines make turbine ownership a simple and smart investment. "When making an investment for a school, you need to know that the turbines will be up and running 30 years from now. This was it," said Lauren Ebbecke, Wausau East High School science teacher and 2009 Energy Educator of the Year.
Unlike older gearbox-based designs or unproven turbines from new manufacturers, the gearless, direct drive Northwind 100 stands apart with its quiet operation, high reliability, safety and performance certifications and full 24/7 monitoring support. Northern Power's global turbine fleet consistently achieves uptime availability of 98% or greater, a level of performance rarely achieved even by multi-million dollar utility scale turbines.
"We are very proud of the extraordinary track record of reliability and customer satisfaction that the Northwind 100 has achieved in its first full year of global deployment. As we continue to invest in the technology for utility-scale applications, we are heartened by the performance of this proven wind turbine architecture," said John P. Danner, CEO of Northern Power Systems.
Currently, Northern Power's customer base reaps a combined $2 million of energy savings and offsets nearly 10,000 tons of carbon emissions annually which is the equivalent of powering over 4,000 homes and taking nearly 2,000 vehicles off the road.