Siemens Wind Power

Danregn / Bonus AS (1980-2004)

History of the company started in 1980, when Danish irrigation system manufacturer Danregn, diversified into the windturbine business; its first wind turbines were machines with rotor diameters of around 10 m (33 ft) with generator powers of 20 to 30 kW (27 to 40 hp). In 1981 the wind activities were separated into newly established company Danregn Vindkraft A/S, established by Peter Stubkjær Sørensen and Egon Kristensen in Brande, Denmark, with a capital of 300,000 kroner; the company's product was a 55 kW (74 hp), 15 m (49 ft) blade diameter turbine.

Between 1982 and 1987 the company exported wind turbines to the USA in collaboration with Difko AS, in response to a wind farm building boom promoted by government subsidies; the company changed its name from Danregn Vindkraft to Bonus Energy in 1983, an easier name for the English speaking North American market.

In 1991, eleven 450 kW Bonus turbines were installed in the Vindeby Offshore Wind Farm (Denmark), the first offshore wind farm in the world.

The company sourced its first blades from Viborg based company Økær Vind Energi. Later it sourced blades from LM Wind Power. In the late 1990s Bonus began to develop its own blades, beginning production in the early 2000s in Aalborg.

2004-2016

Bonus AS was sold to Siemens in 2004 for an undisclosed amount, but before the sale the value was assessed to be somewhere between DKK 1.5 (USD 240 million) and 2.5 billion (USD 400 million). The sales and project management headquarters moved to Hamburg, Germany in May 2009.

Between 2004 and 2011, Siemens grew wind power from 0.5% to 5% of the combined Siemens turnover, with employees growing from 800 to 7,800, of which 5,200 are in Denmark, and 1,000 in Germany. The growth included the expansion of production, warehousing and offices at its Brande site in 2005/6; acquisition in 2006 of a former LM Glasfiber wind turbine blade factory in Engesvang, Denmark; construction of a blade factory in Fort Madison, Iowa, USA in 2007; a hub factory in Ølgod began production in 2008; and a nacelle manufacturing plant was established in Hutchinson, Kansas, USA between 2009 and 2010, opening in December 2010. Additionally Bonus Energy sales and service partner company AN Windenergie GmbH in Bremen (Germany) was acquired in 2005.

In mid-2008 the company began testing of development prototypes of direct drive wind turbines; units based on the geared SWT-3.6-107 were installed in 2008 with a permanent magnet generator directly replacing the gearbox and alternator; Successful tests led to development of a new production design by 2009. A prototype of the new direct drive design, an IEC 61400 wind class IA, 3MW machine (SWT 3.0-101 DD) was installed near Brande, Denmark in 2009. The 3MW design was launched as a product in April 2010 and significantly reduced complexity (half the components) and lower nacelle weight than earlier 2.3MW designs. A 2.3MW version for lower wind speeds (SWT-2.3-113) was launched in 2011.

In 2010 Siemens Wind Power acquired 49% of A2SEA (an offshore wind farm installation company) from DONG Energy for a price of DKK 860m.

A factory established in Linggang ( Siemens Wind Power Blades (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.) near the Yangshan Deep Water Port began production in 2010. Additionally in December 2010 Siemens announced it would install a blade factory at an existing unused facility in Tillsonburg, Ontario, Canada. In early 2011 Siemens and ABP announced the development of a £210 million turbine assembly plant, and dock development at Alexandra Dock, in Kingston upon Hull, UK.

In 2011 Siemens' wind power operations were split into a separate division, 'Wind Power'; with its other renewable energy activities place into a 'Solar & Hydro' division, the divisions headquarters were established in Hamburg on 1 October 2011, the European offshore wind headquarters remained in Brande, Denmark.

In May 2011 testing began of a prototype 6MW direct drive design with a 120 to 154 m (394 to 505 ft) rotor, the design was launched as a product in November 2011. In 2013 Siemens announced a development of its 3.6MW design, the SWT 4.0-130 which used a rotor of diamter 130m with 4MW rated power. At the same time the company introduced new product platform codes for its products, with 'G' indicating geared drive, and 'D' indicating direct drive, suffixed by a number indicating an approximate power class. The four initial product ranges were Siemens G2, G4, D3 and D6.

In July 2012, the company agreed to supply Dong Energy with 300 direct drive, 75m blade, 6 MW SWT-6.0-154 turbines for the English offshore market from 2014. Two turbines are to be installed for testing at the Gunfleet Sands offshore wind farm. The value of the contract was estimated at over £2 billion. Prototype 6MW machines were installed at the Gunfleet Sands 2 wind farm in 2013; with the first full scale commercial installation of 6MW machines at the 210MW Westernmost Rough wind farm in 2014. In September 2012 Siemens Wind announced the lay off of 615 of a workforce of around 1650 workers in the United States, citing reduced demand for wind turbines due to uncertainty concerning future tax break incentives in the USA for wind power. (see United States Wind Energy Policy.)

In March 2014 Siemens and Associated British Ports (ABP) finalised the 2011 MOU to build a turbine factory in Hull, UK ('Green Port Hull'), and announced an additional facility near Paull, East Riding of Yorkshire, east of Hull which would manufacture rotor blades for turbines. In 2014 the planned factory at Paull was abandoned, with all production to be concentrated at the Alexandra dock site. Revised plans for the site submitted April 2015 included only a blade manufacturing factory at the site with no nacelle production.

In 2015 Siemens upgraded its 6MW offshore design to a rated 7MW power with a larger permanent magnet generator, and further to 8 MW in 2016. The first order for the 7MW design was awarded in October 2015 for 47 turbines in the Walney 3 offshore.

In early 2015 Siemens announced it had reached agreements to build 2GW of wind turbines in Egypt, and to construct a blade factory in that country, as part of a larger power generation agreement. The €8 billion, 16.4GW energy development deal was signed in June 2015, including a ~1000 worker blade factory in Ain Soukhna and 12 wind farms (600 turbine, 2GW) in the Gulf of Suez and west Nile areas of Egypt.

In August 2015 Siemens announced it was to construct a new nacelle manufacturing plant at Cuxhaven, Germany, an investment of £200 million. The plant was expected to become operational mid 2017, and employ 1000 people. A €100 million blade plant to be built in the Tanger Automotive City (near Tanger-Med port) in Morocco was announced in early 2016.

Merger with Gamesa (2016)

On 17 June 2016 Siemens and Gamesa (Spain) announced they were to merge their wind businesses, with the two operations forming 59 (Siemens Wind) and 41% (Gamesa) of the resulting company's shareholding, with Siemens offering €3.75 per Gamesa share. The resultant company was to be headquartered in Spain, with an offshore operations headquartered in hamburg, Germany and Vejle, Denmark. Siemens was reported to have paid €1 billion ($1.13 billion) cash for Gamesa shares. Cost savings between duplicated functions in the two businesses was expected by Gamesa to save c. €230 million in the first year of operation. The combined business would be the largest wind turbine manufacturer worldwide by installed capacity (c. 69GW), exceeding Vestas and GE.

Third party analysis (Feng Zhou, FTI Consulting) suggested that Gamesa's strength in China and India and west pacific markets as a strategic asset for Siemens.

An agreement was reached between Areva Wind and Gamesa on their joint venture Adwen, whereby Areva surrendered contractual obligations with Gamesa, and Siemens/Gamesa gave Areva an option to either sell or acquire the jv; Adwen was said to have been a source of contention during negotiations, as Siemens was reluctant to fund factories and development of an 8 MW turbine in France.

2017-present

In Feb 2017 Siemens announced the closure of the Engesvang blade factory (Denmark), with the loss of 430 jobs, citing the plants inability to produce larger size blades.

Acquisitions and joint ventures

Along with Bonus in 2004, Siemens acquired AN Windenergie GmbH in Bremen (Germany) in 2005; the sales and service partner company of Bonus Energy.

In 2010 Siemens Wind Power acquired 49% of A2SEA (an offshore wind farm installation company) from DONG Energy for a price of DKK 860m.

In December 2011 Siemens signed a strategic collaboration agreement with Shanghai Electric for wind power supply in China.

Operations

Siemens Wind has R&D, and production facilities in Brande, Denmark. Blade production is located in Aalborg and Engesvang (Denmark), Linggang (China), Fort Madison, Iowa (USA) and Tillsonburg, Ontario (Canada); with factories under construction or planned (2016) for Kingston upon Hull (UK), Tanger Automotive City (Morocco) and Ain Soukhna (Egypt).

Other established production sites included nacelle manufacture at Hutchinson, Kansas (USA, 1.6 GW) and hub production at Ølgod (Denmark). As of 2016 a new nacelle plant is under development at Cuxhaven (Germany).

Siemens acquired the first of two Roll-on/roll-off turbine transport ships in 2016, converted from a container ship, to reduce logistics costs. A telescopic roof also allows Lift-on/lift-off with cranes.

Products

As of 2016 Siemens Wind products include 2.3, 3.6 and 4.0MW geared turbines; and 3.0, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 6.0 and 7.0 MW direct drive turbines.

Research and development

By 2010 Siemens Wind Power had filed 242 wind turbine patents on the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office database (UK-IPO), while Vestas has filed 787 and General Electric has 666.

In 2008, a R&D center was opened in Boulder, Colorado, United States, stating that it could recruit higher quality aerodynamicists in the location than in Denmark.

In 2009 Siemens supplied a special SWT-2.3-82 turbine installed on "Hywind", the first large capacity floating wind turbine in the world, developed by Statoil.

In around 2010 Siemens has a goal of reducing the cost per kilowatt-hour to €0.05 for onshore windpower and to €0.10 for offshore wind by 2020, many of the cost saving mechanisms were based on practice originating in the auto industry. Potential cost reductions included: automation/robotisation of blade manufacture and tailor woven glass fibre mats to reduce to simplify the blade manufacturing process; use of standardised components across product ranges to reduce overall component costs; elimination of geared generator drives to reduce maintenance cost; and modularisation of nacelle design, splitting generator and power conversion into separate modules, with the aim of additional flexibility in manufacture, and reduced transportation costs due reduced weight of the modules. The company also offered shorter length bolted tower sections allowing container transportation, and simplified mass production.

In a Life-cycle assessment, SWP calculates that the energy for manufacturing a 6MW direct drive wind turbine is made back in under 10 months depending on circumstances, roughly the same as independent research suggests.

SWP develops artificial neural networks for machine learning to predict and diagnose potential problems in 9,000 wind turbines with 400 sensors each, sending data several times a second.

Siemens tests its turbines at LORC, its own test sites and Østerild Wind Turbine Test Field. In 2017, Siemens installed a low-wind 3.15 MW turbine with a 142 meter rotor.