As you probably know by now, the UK, Denmark, and Germany are seriously pushing renewable wind energy. The latest development involved all three nations.
Denmark’s DONG Energy will buy 300 offshore wind turbines, producing a total of 1,800 megawatts, from Siemens (ETR: SIE) of Germany to install in UK wind farms.
Siemens’ new turbines, which churn out 6 megawatts, are currently being tested in Denmark.
The benefits for Siemens are obvious, of course; since DONG is the first customer of the new model, this deal will help straighten out real-world applications of the design, while also contributing to Siemens’ bottom line in renewables.
A similar deal between DONG and Siemens was struck in March of 2009, which specified approximately 500 units of 3.6 megawatts each for a total of 1800 megawatts, the same capacity as this new deal.
DONG acting CEO Carsten Krogsgaard Thomsen said in a statement:
“The agreement will enable DONG Energy to install a significantly larger turbine from 2014 compared to the turbines, we know today.”
DONG intends to install two 6 megawatt units at the Gunfleet Sands offshore facility in the UK later in 2012; those units will be the first by Siemens to be installed in a full wind power plant.
The newly designed Siemens 6 megawatt turbine is built to withstand the demands of offshore installation with a rotor measuring 505 feet.
Siemens is already working on going even further with a 10 megawatt model.
Together, DONG and Siemens have plans for projects with a total of 2 gigawatts in capacity spread across the UK, Germany, and Denmark.
Though the companies have not released monetary information on the present deal, it is estimated to be worth a fair bit, as wind turbines tend to average $1.23 million per megawatt.
