Alpiq Joins Siemens Cuxhaven Factory Construction Crew

Swiss electricity and energy services provider Alpiq has won a contract to provide building technology for Siemens’ new offshore wind turbine production facility in Cuxhaven, Germany.

The Heitkamp GmbH and Ballast Nedam construction consortium has awarded Alpiq with the CHF 44 million (EUR 41 million) contract for planning and implementation of the entire building technology.

The contract covers the planning and implementation of the building technology equipment, which includes the installation of the sanitary facilities, heating, ventilation, electrical engineering, elevator systems, sprinklers, the measuring, control and regulating technology as well as the outside facilities.

Alpiq expects to plan and implement the technical building equipment, including the building automation and the commissioning, by June 2017. The new production facility in Cuxhaven will commence production in mid-2017.

The heart of the production facilities, the first of its kind for Siemens in Germany, is formed by the 320 metres long, 160 metres wide and 30.5 metres high manufacturing building. In this building, Siemens will connect generators, hubs and nacelle back-ends to assemble nacelles for offshore wind turbines.

One of the challenges of this complex large-scale project is the coordination of the building technology under immense time pressure. Also, the weather conditions at the construction site, situated right next to the Elbe estuary on the North Sea, place special demands on the project, Alpiq said.