2023-06-17 07:08:41
An the Weser there was confidence this week that an industry would really take off again. At the “Windforce” conference in Bremerhaven, more than 300 experts from Germany and abroad discussed the planned expansion of offshore wind power in Northern Europe – and the role that German shipyards should play again in the future. The Bremerhaven Lloyd shipyard, for example, which belongs to the Lürssen, Rönner and Zech companies, could build converter stations for wind farms at sea, as the Windforce participants learned during an excursion to the quay edges. “Transformer platforms, hydrogen platforms, special ships and steel construction are needed,” said Windforce host Heike Winkler, Managing Director of the Wind Energy Agency Bremerhaven, WELT AM SONNTAG. In Europe-wide tenders, German shipyards could in future benefit from their ability to build ships and plants particularly efficiently: “The involvement of German shipyards not only makes sense in terms of industrial policy, but also makes a contribution to climate protection.”
The German offshore wind power industry was already a world leader more than ten years ago, especially in the construction of huge converter stations at what was then the Nordic shipyards in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In such systems, electricity from offshore wind farms is transformed from alternating to direct current so that little energy is lost when it is fed into the onshore grid. On land, the electricity is converted back into alternating current. And not only converters were built by German companies back then, domestic manufacturers also supplied wind turbines and their foundations, living platforms and special ships to the North and Baltic Seas.
Then the market got out of step, above all due to political decisions to better synchronize the construction of wind farms and their shore connections and to have the award of new wind farms prepared by the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency in Hamburg from then on. The largest part of the offshore industry with several thousand jobs migrated from the German coasts. Only around the turbine factory of Siemens Gamesa in Cuxhaven and the foundation construction of Steelwind in Nordenham is currently still being manufactured. Bremerhaven lost its leading role in the German offshore market. Now she wants to get it back. “The location is very well positioned to serve a rapid settlement and the required growth of the offshore wind industry,” says Winkler. The conditions on site are good for building a new marine industry.
The new market for offshore wind power is far larger than it was during the first wave of expansion. From 2009 to today, offshore wind farms with a total of around 1600 wind turbines and a nominal total output of just over eight gigawatts have been built in the German parts of the North and Baltic Seas. The federal government is now aiming for an expansion to 30 gigawatts by 2030, to 40 gigawatts by 2035 and to 70 gigawatts by 2045. In addition, there are wind farm projects in Northern Europe alone with several hundred gigawatts of nominal output.
However, the German industrial locations can do little to contribute to this. Siemens Energy is still the best in business – through its subsidiary Siemens Gamesa in the construction of offshore wind turbines in Cuxhaven and with high-voltage electronics for converter stations. However, it is mainly manufactured outside of Germany. In April, network operator Tennet and four industrial consortia agreed on a major order for 14 converter stations worth 30 billion euros. The Dortmund grid operator Amprion Offshore had ordered two more converters shortly beforehand. But not a single one of these systems is being built at a German shipyard.
That could change in the coming years. “Amprion alone will implement a further nine offshore grid connections, each with two gigawatts of power, by 2045,” says Peter Barth, Co-Managing Director of Amprion Offshore. “In addition, we will get to the point in the late 2030s where the first offshore wind farms will have to be renewed after 25 to 30 years of operation.” means for the forthcoming orders. We are also considering the possibility of modular production of converter platforms in order to make it easier for German shipyards to enter the market.”
However, some conditions still have to be met in order to bring German shipbuilding back into the offshore wind energy market. “First and foremost, the industry needs a clear commitment to Germany as a manufacturing location. As a society, we have to be aware that production in Germany is more expensive than in Asia, for example,” says Manager Barth. “You will certainly see a learning curve at the beginning of this process, which can lead to delays under certain circumstances.” That is why the federal government must “work out solutions” together with the offshore wind power and shipbuilding industries.
The biggest hurdle for the German shipyards are the construction costs for converter stations. A single converter with two gigawatts of power costs around two billion euros, about twice as much as a larger cruise ship. The medium-sized shipbuilding companies can hardly bear the risk – for example for the pre-financing of building materials and services. “There are many ways for the state to enable German shipyard companies to enter and be active in the offshore wind power market,” says Reinhard Lüken, Managing Director of the Shipbuilding and Marine Technology Association (VSM) in Hamburg. “The important thing here is that financing instruments are not gifts from the state to the private sector. On the contrary, the state has already made a lot of money with guarantees for shipbuilding.”
Hermes guarantees, for example – usually export credit guarantees – could also be granted for large offshore wind farm projects in the German exclusive economic zone in order to enable medium-sized German companies to participate in such projects, says Lüken: “Another variant that has been used in Japanese shipbuilding since What has been practiced for decades are temporary partnerships between private shipyard companies and a state institution for the realization of certain projects.” However, time is of the essence, says the association manager: “The longer we wait in Germany before awarding the contract, the longer the development of the corresponding production capacities stalls, and we lose valuable time in international competition. We have to move.”
Domestic network operators now have converter platforms mainly built at shipyards in Asia or in Dubai, but also in Cádiz, Spain. In Germany, in addition to Bremerhaven, Rostock-Warnemünde in particular could again be considered for the construction of converters. There, however, the state is currently blocking possible progress. After the insolvency of the company MV Werften – the successor company of Nordic Yards – the federal government acquired the shipyard site in 2022 to set up a new naval arsenal for the German Navy. The navy does not need a large part of the shipyard area in Rostock – but the Federal Ministry of Defense is still sticking to it. “The area is far too big for the arsenal. Safety issues seem to be more important there,” says Lüken. “Companies like Meyer Werft or Smulders, who want to build converter stations there, will need clarity at some point as to whether they can still get a chance.”
German shipyards could build almost all equipment and components required by the offshore wind power industry – be it living platforms from the Bredo shipyard in Bremerhaven, multi-purpose ships from FSG in Flensburg or hydrogen tankers from German Naval Yards in Kiel. The association VSM has examined the offshore wind power capabilities of the shipyards for a new strategy paper. “German shipyards have had reference projects for this for a long time,” says Lüken. “What they need are orders at cost-covering prices and competitive financing concepts.”
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