wiredInUSA May 2017

Private funding to further development

New plant for specialist cables

Economy minister Manuel Caldeira Cabral

Image: Leoni AG

Dublin-based energy developer WElink Energy has signed a contract with China Triumph International Engineering Co Ltd (CTIEC) for the construction of a 220MW solar farm in Portugal. The Solara4 solar project is said to be the largest privately funded solar farm in Europe, and is the first in WElink’s series of planned investments in Portugal. The project will cover 800 hectares of land in Vaqueiros, in the Algarve, and is expected to be generating electricity by the middle of 2018. Portugal’s economy minister, Manuel Caldeira Cabral, remarked during the signing ceremony: “Consumers have in the past paid higher prices for the promotion of renewable energy. We do not want to stop the progress that renewable energy can have, but fortunately the technology has evolved, and evolved in a way that solar energy can now be competitive, paying the investment with unsubsidized tariffs.”

Leoni has begun the construction phase of its “Factory of the Future” project in Roth, Germany. The plant is intended to underpin Leoni’s core business in the cable sector and lay the foundations for use of digital technologies and the strategic expansion of its solutions business. The company plans to invest €90 million in the facility, focusing production on cables for the car industry and the development and production of data cables for autonomous driving. With a planned output of about 400,000km of cable per year, the new facility’s products will range from glass fiber cables for telecommunications and infrastructure, through to high voltage and charging cables for cars with alternative drive systems. In addition to the laboratory and development center, the site will offer an educational and advanced training facility. Based on an estimated construction period of about two years, Leoni expects to begin relocation from the existing plant in early 2019. The relocation of around 800 employees to the new factory is likely to be completed in mid-2020.

wiredInUSA - May 2017

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