Alstom inaugurates its first Hydropower Global Technology Center in Latin America
The GTC was established at the company’s plant in Taubaté, one of the largest in the world, and represents an investment of €8 million
Investe SP
On Thursday, May 22, Alstom inaugurated its first Hydropower Global Technology Center (GTC) in Latin America, in Taubaté – São Paulo. The new center is an important extension of the existing hydropower plant of Taubaté, one of the largest in the world, with almost 2,000 employees. The GTC represents an investment of € 8 million, with 15 employees exclusively dedicated to it.
With this center, Alstom will support Brazil’s increasing need for power generation, developing Kaplan technology for low head hydropower plants, situated between 15 and 60 meters. These plants are able to adapt to river flow variations, thus allowing the production of energy throughout the year, in both flood and dry seasons. Brazil accounts for 45% of the future worldwide Kaplan market for new power plants.
The director of Investe São Paulo, Sérgio Costa, attended the event with Jacques Hardelay, Alstom’s Global Hydro Chief Operating Officer, Marcos Costa, President of Alstom Brazil and other local authorities.
The new Technology Center reinforces a global network of centers based in Grenoble (France), Birr (Switzerland), Baroda (India), Sorel-Tracy (Canada) and Tianjin (China), and will contribute to the development of technological solutions for projects all over the world, particularly in Latin America, meeting the specific needs of the region.
It will gather all the technical expertise in hydropower products in a single place (turbines, generators, control, hydro-mechanical equipment and balance-of-plant, as well as services for hydropower plants).
The center will take advantage of the existing manufacturing expertise of the Group, and of the local industrial facilities of Taubaté. It will include a state-of-the-art test platform for turbine models.
The GTC will benefit from important partnerships with Brazilian engineering companies, institutes, and universities, such as Unifei (Federal University of Itajubá), Unesp (State University of São Paulo) and ITA (Technological Institute of Aeronautics) for the future funding of PhD’s and master’s degrees related to the hydropower market.
“The inauguration of the Brazilian GTC represents a key milestone for Alstom’s development in the country and in the renewable market. It will allow us to benefit from feedback of experience of highly skilled R&D experts and engineers, located next to our customers and for continuously improving the products we design,” said Jacques Hardelay, Global Hydro Chief Operating Officer.
Alstom is a world leading hydropower equipment supplier and service provider. With over a century of experience and extensive know-how in the hydropower industry, Alstom’s hydropower turbines and generators installed worldwide represent more than 25% of the total hydropower capacity. In Brazil, the company already supplied more than 100 turbines in the past 10 years. In Latin America, Alstom is currently supplying equipment for several projects using low head technology: Cachoeira Caldeirão, Santo Antonio, Jirau, Santo Antonio do Jari and Baixo Iguaçu, in Brazil, and Manduriacu, in Ecuador.