Germany: Siemens Works to Reduce Offshore Wind Costs

Siemens will reduce the cost of offshore wind turbines by 30 percent by 2020. The head of the offshore wind business from Siemens, Michael Hannibal told this to the Handelsblatt news site.

As a result, the price of electricity per kilowatt-hour will drop to about ten euro cents. Today, the kilowatt hour costs from 12.8 up to 14.2 euro cents. This applies to all costs: from production of a wind turbine, its transport, to the installation and maintenance. Offshore wind power is very expensive compared to electricity generated from wind turbines on land, which can be bought for about 7 euro cents.

To reduce costs, Siemens needs to play its part. “We are working at full speed to lower production and maintenance costs further,” Hannibal said.

He expects to achieve much with the new six-megawatt machine for offshore wind farms, which is gearless. Here, engineers have reduced the rotating components in the nacelle by half.

In Germany, the cost of offshore wind farms is strongly criticized. They arise far away from the coast, in deep waters. This makes them risky and expensive. Therefore, some critics are calling to abandon the billions of investment in offshore wind energy.

[mappress]

Offshore WIND Staff, October 10, 2013; Image: Siemens