After investing around 180 million euros, the expanded Hansen Transmissions Lommel, Belgium factory was officially opened by Flemish Minister-President Kris Peeters. He also helped assemble Hansen’s 20,000^th wind turbine gearbox and released the ISO 14001 certificate for the plant’s environment management policy, which includes strategies for energy, product storage, air emission and waste.

 

The Lommel facility was expanded from 45,000 to 110,000 square meters and from 193 to over 800 employees, and it has a 6,000-megawatt capacity for manufacturing multi-megawatt wind turbine gearboxes. “Thanks to the unique location of the fully integrated production plant in Lommel and a team of more than 800 highly qualified and experienced employees, we are capable of meeting the various needs and quality demands of this fast-growing industry,” says Ivan Brems, CEO of Hansen Transmissions. “Today, we supply four of the five largest turbine constructors and together, our clients represent over 60 percent of the market for gearbox-driven wind turbines.”

 

Hansen devotes most of its gearbox production to wind turbine gearboxes. The celebrated 20,000^th gearbox will be supplied to Hansen’s largest wind energy client, Vestas Nacelles A/S.

 

The environmental certification audit was conducted by the international certification organization Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance. The final audit report noted a well organized environment management system in terms of care and performance in addition to devoted staff and management, according to Hansen’s press release. “Hansen wants to play an exemplary role in environmental policy,” says Stefan Lammens, managing director of Hansen’s wind energy business unit. “Through an environment management system, structural attention is paid to the environment in all our operations. After a thorough environmental aspect analysis we have defined concrete objectives in an action plan. We aim to minimize the impact on the environment and to permanently improve our environmental performance. Being granted the ISO 14001 certificate is the pinnacle of all the efforts made by Hansen up to now.”

 

Hansen’s yearlong action plan goals include reducing overall energy consumption, keeping inventory of raw materials, monitoring and minimizing chemical agent use, generating more separate waste streams and providing a complete waste management system.