The Swiss-based engineering group ABB has won its biggest ever order in the field of power transmission, to connect wind farms in the North Sea to the German grid.
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The order, from Dutch-German transmission grid operator TenneT, is worth around $1 billion (SFr 780 million) the company announced on Tuesday.
“The completed link will be capable of supplying more than 1.5 million households with clean wind-generated electricity,” ABB said in a statement.
It added that the network, which would become operational in 2015, would help avoid more than three million tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year by replacing fossil-fuel based generation.
The company, whose products are used by oil, gas and utilities companies, is banking on rising interest in so-called green technology, given high oil prices and the drive away from nuclear power, according to Reuters.
In March ABB took a stake in the German alternative energy firm Novatec Solar.
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