Siemens celebrated the topping out ceremony for its new wind turbine manufacturing facility in Cuxhaven, Germany.
The ceremony was attended by Parliamentary State Secretary Enak Ferlemann, Lower Saxony’s State Secretary of Economic Affairs Daniela Behrens, and the Mayor of Cuxhaven, Dr. Ulrich Getsch.
This new facility in northern Germany has a floor space of 56,000 square meters and is one of Siemens’ most important investment projects in recent years, with some EUR 200 million invested in what is the company’s first offshore wind turbine production plant in Germany, Siemens officials said.
Construction of the production building is scheduled for completion by mid-2017. It will begin producing nacelles for Siemens’ next-generation offshore wind turbines in mid-2017.
The wind turbines are designed for installation at sea, each delivering an electrical generating capacity of between six and eight megawatts. Siemens’ new wind turbine blade manufacturing plant in Hull, England is set to begin operation next week already.
There is a growing market for wind turbines designed for erection off shore. Offshore wind power plants are currently being built primarily in the North Sea and Baltic Sea off Europe’s northern coastline. However, wind power projects are being developed in other regions, as well, such as along the East Coast of the United States and in Asia off the coast of China and Taiwan.
“In celebrating this topping ceremony, we mark another important milestone for our new, state-of-the-art production site for offshore wind turbines in Cuxhaven,” said Markus Tacke, CEO of Siemens’ Wind Power and Renewables Division.
“The new manufacturing plant is part of our efforts to establish offshore wind power as a key pillar of a sustainable energy mix,” Tacke added. “At the same time we’re creating up to 1,000 attractive jobs here and thereby supporting sustainable structural change in the coastal region.”
Siemens has already received almost 1,600 job applications so far. A number of suppliers who will serve the plant have also announced plans to establish local businesses.
Ferlemann commented that Siemens’ new production plant in Cuxhaven sets an important signal for further expanding offshore wind power in Germany. “The power generated by offshore wind farms will contribute substantially to our future energy mix, while simultaneously helping us to achieve the climate goals of the Paris Agreement.”
Behrens stated that Siemens’ new manufacturing plant is and will be the single most important anchor for the new German offshore industry center in Cuxhaven, and underscores the essential role Lower Saxony is playing as Germany’s leading energy-provider state and driver of the nation’s energy transition.
Rajani Baburajan
editor@greentechlead.com