Siemens in US wind farm deal with Danish NEG Micon
Date: 21-Jun-02
Country: GERMANY
Siemens said it would work with NEG Micon on two projects to build wind farms of 80 megawatts (MW) capacity each in Nevada, worth around 160 million euros. Some 75 percent of the project value usually goes to the wind turbine maker.
Siemens' Managing Director for wind energy Christian Mehlberg told Reuters at a wind energy trade fair in Hamburg he expected to install the wind farms before the end of 2003.
But NEG Micon's Chief Executive Officer Torben Bjerre Madsen, also in Hamburg, was more cautious on the timing, saying the projects still needed final approvals from authorities and financing.
"We are still in the developing phase and we might get the first order of 80 MW next year," he said.
The two U.S. projects are part of a 300-400 MW wind farm portfolio that Siemens is engaged in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Greece, Korea and China.
Siemens develops, builds and manages wind parks and the electricity is sold to utilities.
"We have projects of around 300-400 megawatt in the pipeline for the coming two years," Mehlberg said. During the past few years, Siemens has developed wind farms generating almost a 100 MW in Germany and the Netherlands.
Other Siemens units provide services and products to the wind farm industry, ranging from transmission systems to electrical equipment for the turbines.
Wind power analysts have speculated as to whether Siemens was planning to enter the wind turbine manufacturing sector, following rival General Electric , which recently acquired U.S. wind turbine unit Enron Wind after its parent company went bankrupt.
"We might start our own production of wind turbines at some point in the future," Mehlberg said. "But we have no such plans at present."