Wind competitor giants agree to join forces

Siemens Gamesa and Vestas have signed a partnership agreement that will involve standardising equipment used in the storage and transportation of the huge components now used by wind turbine manufacturers.

“The first project is about so-called sea fastening – fixing towers, blades and nacelles to installation vessels,” a statement said.

At the moment, when a wind turbine tower is shipped out for offshore installation, the manufacturer welds a box onto the installation vessel, to which the tower is clamped.

“The process is costly in terms of tons of iron and labour on the quayside. Once installation offshore is completed, all the equipment is removed from the vessel, which is again costly in terms of hours and money,” said Jesper Møller, chief engineer, Offshore Execution, at Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy.

“In 2027, there will be far too many offshore wind farm projects on the drawing board relative to the number of installation vessels available. This presents difficulties for the green transition, for us as manufacturers and indeed for our entire value and supply chain.

“That is why we have chosen to enter into a new partnership with Vestas to optimise the cost-intensive equipment each of our companies delivers today. Standardisation will allow us quite simply to ship out more turbine parts faster.”

Industry has been calling for standardisation for a while now.

At the Nor-shipping conference in Oslo this year, a panel including GE Renewable Energy, Seaway7 and DEME floated the idea of standardising aspects of the industry. This was followed by similar calls from the International Marine Contractors Association to standardise contracts.

“Ultimately, standardisation is of benefit to the production of green power that everyone is asking us to deliver,” said Morten Baungaard Nielsen, lead project manager, Global Supply Chain, Global Transport Readiness at Vestas.

“Standardisation is a natural step to take in maturing any industry. Our wind industry supply chains are no exception. It makes perfect sense for us to develop common standards so that we manufacturers do not have to take charge of large chunks of the logistics.

“By shifting more of our costs out into the value chain, we save money and boost our subcontractors’ business.”

“Now we’re looking for people, companies, anyone willing to help us do things smarter – we are keen to engage in a dialogue with everyone in the wind industry value chains – including our competitors. We will collaborate with anyone who wants to make a collective, green difference with us,” said Nielsen.

This new atmosphere of cooperation among competitors is being facilitated by the independent group Energy Cluster Denmark, which has already helped Vestas, Siemens Gamesa and other subcontractors to collaborate on common lifting equipment and tower based design.