Siemens has bagged an order worth €700 million for the supply and installation of 288-MW offshore wind turbines off Germany’s North Sea coast.

The agreement also covers a long-term maintenance contract for 10 years. The order was placed by wpd group, Germany.

Siemens Financial Services, Marguerite Fund, Industriens Pension, PKA A/S (each 22.5 per cent) and wpd AG (10 per cent) will contribute the equity portion of the €3.1-billion project.

Project finance

All partners have aligned their resources to secure a project finance of 67 per cent senior debt and 33 per cent equity basis with a consortium of up to nine banks involving multilateral institution such as the European Investment Bank and KfW (the German development bank), Siemens said.

The turbines, each of 3.6 MW, will be erected over a surface area of 42 sq km in waters measuring about 20 metres deep.

“By 2020, we estimate that the combined installed electrical generating capacity of wind power installations worldwide will reach 500 gigawatts,” said Felix Ferlemann, CEO of Siemens Energy’s Wind Power Division.

Wind farm potential

Siemens said it is also bringing a comprehensive service package to the off-shore project, tailored to ensure maximum long-term exploitation of the wind farm’s potential.

These efforts include remote monitoring and diagnostics solutions implemented in conjunction with the latest weather forecasting techniques. This is to facilitate anticipatory, forward-looking service planning and enable maintenance work to be performed in bundled packages within suitable timeframes.

Siemens has also developed a new, customised logistics concept for the project wherein Siemens’ service technicians will live and work on board a specially designed service operation vessel.

shanker.s@thehindu.co.in

Related Topics