SCOTTISH SMALL wind turbine manufacturer Gaia-Wind has celebrated 1000 of its distinctive turbines rolling off the production line since the company moved its operations from Denmark to Glasgow in 2011.

The 1000th turbine marks the beginning of a relationship with Scottish Water Horizons Ltd, a commercial subsidiary of Scottish Water, which is growing its renewable energy portfolio across the Scottish Water estate. The milestone also took place as Gaia-Wind reported new export orders for Japan and Italy.

The company's turbines are now installed in Tonga, Japan, Australia, USA, the Caribbean, Sweden, Denmark and Italy, as well as all over the UK. By 2020, the company believes its machines will be delivering a good economic return in almost every global market without any form of government subsidy.

CEO Johnnie Andringa said: “We are thrilled to have reached this massive milestone which marks a terrific reward for the hard work of our team here at Gaia-Wind. We are proud to be working with Scottish Water Horizons and look forward to playing a role in their renewable energy development in the future, and the Scottish Government support for renewables has been very important to us and to the farm scale wind industry.

“The last five years have been a roller coaster of changes in markets for farmscale renewables at home and abroad," said Mr Andringa. "Having witnessed a series of ham-fisted UK Government interventions in the support regime which created a very challenging market in the UK, we have been growing export markets and can now report that over 90% of sales are overseas – Denmark and Italy in particular,”

“The most exciting result of our continuous R and D investment is that Gaia-Wind is now delivering turbines that compete with the retail price of electricity in several markets. By 2020 our turbines will deliver a good economic return in almost every global market without any form of government subsidy."

Visiting the Glasgow factory, Scottish economy secretary Keith Brown said: “I am very pleased to hear that Gaia-Wind’s turbine production has reached 1000. They are an excellent example of quality turbines produced in Scotland. Gaia Wind's product can help make renewable energy more accessible to more people and organisations as we can see from their work with Scottish Water which is just beginning."