Thanks to a global supply chain, Availon can supply components with short delivery times, which contributes to reduced return-to-service times and greater productivity.

Availon, a multi-brand independent service provider for wind turbines, has successfully kept the U.S. wind farms it has under O&M contracts at historical levels of availability.

The most challenging wind site, which remains undisclosed at this time, is now continuously running at above 98.4% availability. Other less challenging wind farms enjoy availability levels between 99.4 % and 99.8%.

Availon was able to achieve the highest contractual availability, which the sites has ever seen, a remarkable performance considering that the increasing age of the turbines. With turbine downtime brought down to a level of near zero, Availon’s customers are able to maximize revenue yields.

“We are extremely proud of those results. When your business is to harness the wind, it’s vital to keep your turbines online. Our very name, which comes from “Availability ON,” underpins our mission to reach the highest availability and lowest component failure rate to drive peak profitability of the wind farm assets under our care,” said Ulrich Schomakers, CEO, Availon Inc.

Availon’s team helps clients manage costs by minimizing unscheduled maintenance, preventing turbine failure, and optimizing turbine performance. Clients are attracted to the unique blend of local solutions and global expertise Availon provides. Now, customers in North America are seeing the same benefits on their projects.

“We’re excited to offer our services to more customers in North America,” said Schomakers, who noted that Availon has its U.S. headquarters in Grimes, Iowa, along with another office in Texas. “Being located in the heart of America’s leading wind energy areas keeps us close to our customers. We deliver the wow factor. That’s why more and more U.S. owners trust their service needs to our expanding American business. We have built up the organization and are now ready to take the next steps to significantly grow our O&M global business in the next years.”

With more than 20 years in the wind energy business, Availon focuses on wind energy technology from GE, Vestas, and Gamesa equipment. The company has more than 1,700 turbines under contract, representing over 2,600 MWs of installed power. Approximately 10% of this business is located in the United States.

Availon
www.availon.com

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According to Molycorp, depressed rare earth pricing is a key factor in the decision to suspend production.

Molycorp, Inc. will transition its Mountain Pass rare earth facility to a “care and maintenance” mode while it plans to continue serving its rare earth oxide customers via its production facilities in Estonia and China. Customers of the company’s magnetic materials and rare earth-based water treatment products will not be impacted.

Rare earth production at the Mountain Pass facility will be suspended no later than October 20, 2015. The site, including idled machinery and equipment, will be maintained to ensure it remains in a safe and stable condition, and that government regulatory commitments can be met.

Rare earth pricing, which has declined dramatically over the past four years, was a key factor in the decision to suspend rare earth production at Mountain Pass, Company officials said. Molycorp is being advised by the investment banking firm of Miller Buckfire & Co. and is receiving financial advice from AlixPartners, LLP.  Jones Day and Young, Conaway, Stargatt & Taylor LLP act as legal counsel to the Company in this process.

For information regarding the Chapter 11 case, please visit http://cases.primeclerk.com/molycorp. 

Molycorp, Inc.
www.molycorp.com

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