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Siemens Installs First North Sea Offshore Wind Grid Platform

Siemens Installs First North Sea Offshore Wind Grid Platform
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Δευ, 26 Αυγούστου 2013 - 17:24
After a year's delay, German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG (SI) Monday said it has installed the first of four offshore wind energy grid platforms in the North Sea, a key success after the company's setbacks in the sector in recent years.
After a year's delay, German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG (SI) Monday said it has installed the first of four offshore wind energy grid platforms in the North Sea , a key success after the company's setbacks in the sector in recent years.

"With the installation of our platform at sea we have successfully mastered the most critical part of this project and are now in the final stretch for commissioning in 2014", Karlheinz Springer, chief executive of Siemens' energy power transmission division, said.

In mid-2010 Siemens decided to break new ground for the company, joining a consortium with TenneT and Italian cable specialist Prysmian Spa to build offshore grid connections. The projects include HelWin1 and HelWin2 off Helgoland , BorWin2 off Borkum, as well as SylWin1 off the island of Sylt .

But Siemens underestimated the cost and other efforts needed for the projects, including a complicated approval process which set back the start. Siemens' estimate of 33 months to complete the task turned out to be too low. Of the four projects, three have been delayed. Only HelWin2 is expected to be finished on time, in 2015. The BorkWin2 platform just left the wharf over the weekend. The projects are also over-running Siemens' 500 million euro ($668.5 million) cost estimate. Additional costs, including legal fines due to delays, have put the price tag for the platforms closer to EUR710 million.

But Siemens isn't alone. Rival ABB is also running nine months late on its DolWin1 offshore platform project, which was slated to begin operating this year.

HelWin1 links two offshore wind parks, Nordsee Ost and Meerwind, to the continental mainland. The installation of the HelWin1 platform means purchaser TenneT can supply clean electricity to more than 500,000 German households on the mainland beginning next year.

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