Siemens Gamesa puts Cuxhaven on the offshore wind map

Hamburg / 14 January 2022

How does Germany's top health resort destination end up home to the largest offshore wind production facility in the country? Well, the answer lies in a little spark of imagination on the part of Siemens Gamesa. The company took a decision to build a central production site for nacelles right on the German North Sea coast that would tackle the problem of road transportation costs. And since then, there's been no looking back - offshore wind has officially found a new base in Cuxhaven.

On January 14, 2022, the first serially-manufactured SG 11.0-200 DD nacelle left the Siemens Gamesa factory hall in Cuxhaven. The factory has been converted and upgraded for the new product generation over several months since the summer. Now serial production has started and the first turbine has been assembled. It will be installed at the Hollandse Kust Zuid offshore wind park in The Netherlands for customer Vattenfall. A total of 140 turbines from Cuxhaven will be installed in the offshore wind park, making it the largest in the world at the time of commissioning with a capacity of 1,500 MW. It will also be the world’s first subsidy-free offshore wind power plant.

Our largest wind turbine for the world’s largest and first subsidy-free offshore wind park

With the SG 11.0-200 DD, Siemens Gamesa is continuing the success story of gearless direct drive offshore turbines. Compared to the predecessor model, the annual energy production is increased by up to 40 percent. The turbines have an output of 11 MW and will be equipped with 97 m long rotor blades, resulting in a rotor diameter of 200 m and a swept area of 31,400 m2. This corresponds to an area of more than four football fields.

"Rolling out the first serially-manufactured SG 11.0-200 DD is a terrific start to the year. I am very proud that we managed to stay on schedule and carried out a smooth product changeover at the plant despite the adversities of the COVID-19 pandemic," says a delighted Anton Bak, Siemens Gamesa’s plant manager in Cuxhaven.

"Production in Cuxhaven is going very well. The plant and the SG 11.0-200 DD will play a central role in the global growth of offshore wind energy. We are particularly pleased to be able to support the German government's new offshore targets with local production and value creation to ensure the success of the energy transition in Germany," adds Marc Becker, CEO of the Siemens Gamesa Offshore Business Unit and Managing Director of Siemens Gamesa in Germany.

What started out nearly six years ago, on February 4, 2016 to be precise, when the state of Lower Saxony Ministry of Economic Affairs gave the 'green light' for the establishment of a German Offshore Industry Center in Cuxhaven has enabled the port city to become a critical link in the value chain of offshore wind and hydrogen energy. Siemens Gamesa's decision in 2020 to purchase an additional 200,000m² at the original plant site, underlines the continued strengthening of Cuxhaven's standing in the offshore wind sector.

“The city of Cuxhaven has undergone a massive transformation in the last two decades," acknowledges Marc Itgen, Managing Director of Cuxhaven's Economic Development Agency, joint agency for economic development in the city and district of Cuxhaven. "The harbor extension during this period was a milestone, marked by the setup of international companies like Siemens Gamesa."

Thanks to Siemens Gamesa's continued investments - nearly €200 million to date - in the construction of the plant, related machinery and supporting investments in the upgrade of the port, in the water and landside infrastructure, Cuxhaven has seen increased business for building materials, trading, civil and hydraulic engineering, transport and logistics companies, equipment and crane manufacturers and a host of other service providers.

In terms of direct employment close to 1,000 jobs have been created - the Siemens Gamesa production facility in Cuxhaven is a final assembly plant, where all components for the hub, generator and backend are assembled into the turbine and then shipped out to project sites.

Creating a positive domino effect

The true success of the Siemens Gamesa plant in Cuxhaven is perhaps best measured in view of other key international companies that have come up in the vicinity. In 2018, Nordmark commenced operations of a brand new machining facility adjacent to Siemens Gamesa, where the largest components for the offshore turbine are machined. Siemens Gamesa was the deciding factor in Nordmarks’ decision to set up a facility in the port city.

Klaus Janssen, Plant Manager of Nordmark in Cuxhaven explains, “The Danish high-tech company, Nordmark specializes in the field of high precision machining of large scale XXL components for the wind industry. We were the first Siemens Gamesa supplier to invest more than €20 million in Cuxhaven. Easy access to both land and sea transportation, not to mention the proximity to one of our key customers were advantages we wanted to fully leverage."

When all things are considered, it's like a positive domino effect, with Cuxhaven expected to see an increase in purchasing power between €20-36 million per year. “Siemens Gamesa stabilized the economy development in Cuxhaven as well as the hinterland and generates strong growth in blue and white color workers, which goes hand in hand with higher buying power. We see Siemens Gamesa as an important partner for further development of the city and also as a benchmark of how corporations should view the potential of a location like that of Cuxhaven,” Marc Becker adds.

For me personally as a passionate sailor and kite surfer who grew up in Cuxhaven, it is still unbelievable to have the opportunity to work for the global leader of offshore wind power in my home town and make a contribution to the world's green energy footprint every day," says Kristoffer Mordhorst, Production Manager in the Siemens Gamesa Nacelle Manufacturing Plant in Cuxhaven.

"I have been with the company since the first foundation was laid. Our reputation in the region is huge - Siemens Gamesa has certainly made an impact on the community. We created a vast number of jobs and are currently one of the biggest employers in the region, if not the biggest. We have produced more than 400 8 MW offshore wind turbines for wind parks all over the world, which today produce more than 2000 MW of green energy and saving enormous amounts of CO2-emissions compared to fossil power production. I couldn’t be prouder of what we have achieved so far. And the journey is just beginning…”

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Siemens Gamesa puts Cuxhaven on the offshore wind map

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