W3 Energy, an independent Swedish asset manager, is now using the Greenbyte performance optimisation solution to optimise 1.6GW of specialised cold climate wind power for international investors.
The growing portfolio includes two of the world’s largest onshore wind projects, CGN’s 650MW Markbygden ETT and Luxcara’s 1,400MW Markbydgen Önusberget, as well as a number of smaller projects, including Fu-Gen’s largest operational cold climate wind farm, the 42MW Fjällboheden project.
With a 13-year track record in mastering the unique challenges presented to wind operations by cold climates, as well as proprietary digital tools to manage de-icing systems, W3 Energy offers international investors an opportunity to mitigate the risk of annual cold climate production losses of up to 12 per cent.
Central to this optimisation is Greenbyte, one of the renewable energy software solutions from Power Factors. Greenbyte collects data from across the scaling fleet to drive performance improvements and cost savings, while also enabling the application of specialised cold climate digital tools by the W3 team.
Pär Dunder, W3’s CEO, comments: “In the early years we built an in-house model to house our data and manage our projects. We also developed the ice detection tools and manual systems that have proved essential to the full optimisation of projects in cold climates.
“But as we grew, it became clear that we needed a proven and adaptable solution with deep customer service and access to all the latest thinking and solutions on the market. The Greenbyte partnership began in 2019, works openly with W3’s in-house experts, and continues to scale with us today.
“Currently, we look after around 18 per cent of Sweden’s burgeoning wind capacity, offering the full scope of active technical and financial asset management services. We aim to sustain this level of market share while transferring specialist knowledge to new markets as they open up, not least Finland. There’s also a huge and necessary repowering opportunity starting to come into view for earlier cold climate projects”.
Magnus Henriksson, Power Factors’ Chief Customer Officer, says: “W3’s deep experience of driving project efficiencies in cold climates is helping more and more international investors to expand wind power across the Nordics and harness some exceptional natural resource.
“With that operational portfolio now topping 1.6GW, with much more to come, we are proud of the role that our software services play in getting more renewable power on to the system worldwide, however challenging the conditions!”
