Siemens’ direct drive offshore wind turbines have generated 2.5 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity since the prototype 6MW direct drive turbine was installed at Høvsøre, Denmark in May 2011.
To put the amount of electricity produced by its direct drive offshore wind turbines into perspective, Siemens said that 2.5TWh of electricity is enough to meet the annual demand of all of the households in the city of Munich.
Since 2011, Siemens has installed and commissioned roughly 130 6MW direct drive turbines on wind farms across Europe.
The company installed two SWT-7.0-154 prototypes at the Østerild test site in Northwestern Denmark in February 2016.
The SWT-8.0-154 turbine was introduced to the market in July 2016, with the first prototype expected to be installed in early 2017.
By 2020, Siemens expects 1,000 offshore direct drive turbines will have been installed, increasing the combined energy produced by the platform by more than tenfold to 27 TWh.