Laborde Completes Three 1,400KW Gensets for UK Wind Project

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.  There are in total seven units 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.

"Laborde Products and our Channelview facility are well-suited for this type of project," said Manning.  "Our rebuild experience, REMAN program and large Mitsubishi parts inventory have helped us become the largest Mitsubishi large bore distributor within North America.  This provides us with Mitsubishi resources and experience few others have with the Mitsubishi product.

"Because this is very large machinery requiring special equipment to move it around, we are adding personnel and completing improvements to our facility to accommodate this work," Manning added.  There are four more units in the project, two of which are in 15' x 60' enclosures weighing in excess of 30 tons each.

Headquartered in Covington, Louisiana, Laborde Products packages and distributes its own line of diesel-powered equipment under the trade name of Diesel America, in addition to serving as a distributor of Yanmar, Mitsubishi, Hatz, FPT and Scania diesel and gas engines.