Germany Mulls Backing Wind Platform to Counter China Competition
(Bloomberg) Germany is considering backing the construction of an offshore wind power-conversion platform in the Baltic Sea as it looks to tackle China’s dominance in renewables infrastructure, according to people familiar with the deliberations.
Grid operator 50Hertz Transmission is set to announce on Wednesday that a consortium including Germany’s Siemens Energy AG won a tender for a 2-gigawatt converter platform, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t yet public. The government is considering whether to support the deal with up to €300 million ($348 million) in loan guarantees, the people said.
The state-backed initiative would mark a turnaround for Europe’s biggest economy a decade after it surrendered the production of such converters – vast platforms that feed flows from turbines into the grid — as it scaled back its offshore wind ambitions. As with a range of other components in wind and solar energy, converter production is now dominated by Chinese producers. That has prompted the European Union to try to support more local manufacturing.
The consortium also comprises Belgian construction firm Smulders — a subsidiary of French civil engineering construction company Eiffage — and Neptun Werft, a shipbuilder based in the Baltic port of Rostock.
The consortium’s bid requires less steel and has an optimized design that proved superior, beating competition from companies such as Spain’s Dragados Offshore, one of the people said. In 2024, the economy ministry said that an offshore converter platform costs around €2.5 billion.
Spokespeople for 50Hertz, the economy ministry and Siemens Energy declined to comment. Eiffage and Neptun Werft didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
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