Spanish turbine manufacturer Acciona has successfully shifted its major market for wind turbine sales to Brazil, with agreements signed this year to supply three more wind projects totalling 297MW.

The new projects will be in Ceara and Rio Grande do Sul. A further project agreement for 117MW in Itarema is close to settlement, said Jose Luis Blanco, executive director of Acciona Windpower.

Most of the projects were signed in the last 12 months, fulfilling the manufacturer's strategy to shift to new regions following the Spanish market collapsed. "We follow the market," he said.

The projects will be supplied with the 3MW Acciona model on 100 or 120 metre concrete towers with 125 or 116 metre rotors. Fifteen year operations and maintenance delivery is included in most of these project contracts.

Once its new nacelle factory in Bahia is complete later this year, the company will have production capacity for four turbines a week in Brazil, totalling 600MW maximum a year. Acciona experiences the same supply chain problems of the industry, "This creates some short term bottlenecks that there is no way we are going to overcome, such as casting, forgings," said Blanco.

The local skills required are being developed with the help of expertise from the Spanish division. "We have still have the activities in Spain to cover worldwide activities. We also use it as a training facility for the new markets," he said.

Acciona's top countries for wind turbine delivery, including current orders is: 720MW in Brazil, 300MW in US, 252MW in Mexico. Spain comes sixth with 105MW.