“With our new organizational setup we’ll have a stronger regional alignment and greater customer intimacy. They are key prerequisites to continuing the success story of our wind power business in the future, too,” Suess commented. “Our starting position for that is very good: we can build on a record order backlog totalling almost €11 billion and, in offshore wind power plants, the fastest growing market sector, we’re world market leader.”
In Germany alone, Siemens has already secured orders for six offshore wind power plants in the North and Baltic Sea with a combined capacity of 1,300 megawatts (MW). It is anticipated that the workforce of Siemens Wind Power in Hamburg will triple from the current 170 to over 500 by 2013. Worldwide Siemens has a work force of approximately 7800 in the wind power sector, with around 1000 in Germany.
“For wind power business the industrialization of manufacturing and logistics geared toward reducing wind power costs through high-efficiency processes will play a decisive role in the future. Here, Felix Ferlemann as CEO of the Wind Power Division with the extensive experience he has accumulated in the automobile sector, will bring us a significant step forward,” added Suess.
Particular importance will also be attached to regionalization in order to increase customer intimacy. Siemens will therefore in the future manage its wind power business below division level from three regional Business Units. Wind power business for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and for the European offshore market will be managed from Brande in Denmark.
The prospects for wind power are very good. It is anticipated that the world market will increase from approximately €42 billion per annum in 2010 to around €60 billion in 2016. The onshore market is expected to increase from 38 gigawatts (GW) to 45 GW per annum. At the same time, offshore wind farms are also gaining in importance and are expected to show an annual increase from 3 GW to 11 GW.
In five years’ time, offshore wind power plants will already account for approximately 20 percent of the entire wind power market. In Europe alone, Siemens is anticipating offshore wind power generating facilities with an installed capacity of more than 80 GW by 2030. That is equivalent to approximately more than half of the power plant fleet currently installed in Germany. Of these 80 GW only six percent have currently been developed. The company also wants to post significant growth with onshore wind farms, which already account for over 60 percent of Siemens’ global wind power business.
The wind business has been expanded significantly since Siemens acquired the Danish wind turbine manufacturer Bonus Energy in 2004. The work force has in the meantime increased almost ten-fold from 800 to approximately 7800 and revenue has even risen twelve-fold to approximately €3.2 billion.
Today, Siemens Wind Power has seven manufacturing facilities in three countries. It is anticipated that in three years’ time, there will be as many as twelve production plants in eight countries.
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