Laborde Products recently completed refurbishing and testing of three diesel generator sets for a wind farm in the United Kingdom. According to Joe Manning, manager of Laborde's Channelview operations, these units will provide backup to the wind turbines when the prevailing wind is low. Mitsubishi S16R large bore diesel engines power the generators. Seven total units are involved in the project, each rated from 1,400kW to 2 MW.
Because of Laborde's extensive experience with Mitsubishi diesel engines, these units were shipped to their Channelview facility from a project in California where they were operating on biogas. The scope of Laborde's work includes converting the generators from biogas to #2 diesel fuel, and converting the output from 60 Hz to 50 Hz to match the operating current of the United Kingdom.