Eoltec is an experienced engineers owned, Wind Energy Systems designer and manufacturer Company,   focused on the development and production of modern medium size wind turbines (6 to 300kW). 

Started early 2001 with location in Nice/France, Eoltec's target is to provide to customers an up-to-date and cost effective solution to bring maximum power out of wind. 

The market :

Medium size WT's market suffer of a critical lack of efficient, reliable and industrial products, with currently available technology typically lagging 20 to 30 years behind the state-of-the-art know from modern large turbines.

Most of the medium size WTs are designed to optimize acquisition cost, at the detriment of cost/performances ratio, life time and noise. Measured efficiency  is frequently lower than 20%, when modern design allow for about 40% efficiency.

In the opposite way, some manufacturers do not hesitate to claim for more than 100% efficiency, what is a curious and in truth unfair way to overcome their weaknesses.

Over speed control :

Furling technique is a good example of this "marketing approach" trend. In spite of the fact that furling technique has never been used for industrial applications, because of intrinsic low performances, reliability issues and others weaknesses, it is often presented as a "must" for private applications, because it is not at all used on industrial market !

In the opposite way, Eoltec uses the technique now implemented on 100% of the large wind turbines, about 10,000 units produced per year, pitch control. To avoid the complexity of large turbine's pitching system, our turbine uses a fully passive mechanical system, centrifugal pitch control :

Centrifugal pitch control allows for accurate overspeed control, with low rpm maintained on whole wind speed range (up to 60m/s), independently of turbine load, and constant output power up to 60m/s wind speed. Unlike the majority of our competitors, tip speed is thus limited to about 75m/s, the same figure than for large wind turbines.

Wind turbine Price :

Cost reduction is a necessity to increase market size. However the turbine itself represents only about 35% of the installation's overall cost, the remaining costs being the tower, electronic, concrete, installation and maintenance over life period. Then if you reduce turbine's cost and energy production by the same amount (it is often worse), at end actual energy cost is increased because the other costs remain unchanged.

With available old technology turbines, the financial gain on a complete installation is usually about 10%, when actual energy production is divided by 2 or more. On an economic point of view that is a pure nonsense, efficiency must be preserved to lessen real energy cost.

With market expansion, a recent trend is to spend a lot of money in marketing and advertising, while the turbines themselves remain totally unchanged, still 1980's design with 1980's performances. From our point of view, the final user would get more advantages if that money was invested in R&D and manufacturing process.

In contrast with that, Eoltec do not spend a lot of money in marketing/advertising, but invest in R&D and manufacturing. Development is focused on  cost/efficiency/reliability optimization, on whole wind range and with particular attention on low to medium wind speeds, because that is representative of the majority of potential sites. 

Based on our large experience in various domains, on practical realizations and measurements, we have developed new solutions, based on industrial approach and inspired of proven large WT's technology. In short :

- Hollow blades, variable cord and pitch, low noise tips

- "Pitch control" over speed system

- Direct drive, high efficiency, low speed, fully sealed permanent magnet generator

- Variable speed management with maximum power point tracking

- Low rotation speed, low tip speed (<75 m/s)

- 3D computer design and simulation (mechanic and aerodynamic)

Combined with an uncompromised design and manufacturing, in accordance with  reliability and life time targets, our turbines set a new benchmark for performances and quality, without any comparison with older products in the same range. That results in highly enhanced cost/performances ratio and actual reliability.

It is clear now that increase of traditional energies costs will continue over years, and that ineluctable trend will helps to improve renewable energies competitiveness.

Eoltec's vision and mission are clearly to continue to built a cutting edge technology and to set new qualitative standards to offer to the market the possibility to well exploit this clean, cost efficient and unlimited energy resource that is wind.

Eoltec Phone and Address :

Address :	Eoltec/BFI 455, promenade des Anglais, porte de l'Arenas, Hall C 06299 Nice Cedex3 FRANCE
	+33(0)4.88.13.05.70