GE announces today the delivery of the first machine head manufactured in Brazil. The equipment will be delivered to Eletrosul consortium to compose a project being held in Chuí, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. With the announcement, GE is the first company in Brazil who has nationalized the components that integrate turbine’s machine head, equipment considered essential to assure an exemplary operation of turbine blades and, therefore, imperative to guarantee appropriate rates in power generation.

To anticipate BNDES (National Bank of Development) norms, which requires that from January 2015 on the machine head must be manufactured locally, GE has invested in the hiring and qualification of new suppliers and in the attraction of companies who did not have operations in Brazil to be local partners. Within one year, 35 new direct suppliers were hired and six global companies have gotten accredited and settle in the country to work in partnership with GE.

“We’ve searched for new suppliers who already had operations in Brazil, but not in windpower sector, and for global partners who had been working in eolian projects with GE in other countries, but who did not have operation in Brazil”, says Rodrigo Ferreira, director to Supply Chain to eolian business in the region. “We’ve also prospected new partners, in this way promoting new joint-ventures and investments in order to support GE in Brazil”, he complements.

Among the suppliers who did not have operations at the country, GE has signed new contracts with VCI Molde, Duomo, Iraeta Group and SKF-Kaydon. Other two contracts have been signed with companies who worked only with distribution networks or who had operations focused in different sectors: Sanmina and Bonfiglioli, who now have local manufacturing centers focused on the production of new components to wind turbines.

“The arrival of new suppliers highlights the development of national productive chain and the market’s confidence on the development of eolian projects as an alternative resource to power generation in the region”, states Jean-Claude Robert, general manager to GE Renewable business in Latin America.

With this milestone, GE’s machine heads and hubs have nationalization index superior to 60%, in this way being accredited to participate of Finame, BNDES’s funding line with more attractive conditions to acquisition of new machinery and equipment produced in Brazil.

In 2014 GE announced that had reached 1GW of wind capacity installed in the country, planning to add 1.5GW in new projects over the next year. The company’s windpower business is present in Campinas, city in the state of São Paulo, with a manufacturing facility focused on equipment assembly, and in the states of Bahia and Rio Grande do Norte, where are operating two service centers that aims to support GE local partners projects.