Siemens Gamesa has highlighted strong opportunities for the wind industry in green hydrogen production, which is reinforcing the growing global wind energy capacity expected to be installed over the next decade .
The growth in global wind energy capacity, including a sharp increase in offshore wind installations from 2024, will be reinforced by the enormous potential of green hydrogen, in which Siemens Gamesa is taking firm steps to play a leading role, the company said in financial results for the second quarter of its fiscal year.
Siemens Gamesa is one of the first 27 members of the consortium behind a 10 GW AquaVentus offshore wind-to-hydrogen project in Germany, which was recently joined by Equinor and the offshore wind giant Ørsted. With Ørsted, Siemens Gamesa is also involved in a project focused on a system combining a single offshore wind turbine and an electrolyser, and transporting green hydrogen to shore.
In mid-January, Siemens Gamesa joined forces with Siemens Energy to develop a solution that fully integrates an electrolyser into an offshore wind turbine.
For the wind industry, green hydrogen represents an opportunity of 100 GW by 2035 and 245GW by 2045 (275 and 620 GW in the high scenario in 2035 and 2045, respectively), according to estimates cited by the wind turbine supplier.
So far, Siemens Gamesa’s wind turbines account for 111.8 GW of installed capacity, 94.6 onshore and 17.2 GW offshore.
In offshore wind, the company had 2.6 GW in new orders in the quarter and the signature of major firm contracts, including the 1,400 MW Sofia project. Siemens Gamesa also reported a 8 GW backlog and 7.4 GW in the conditional pipeline for its offshore wind segment.
Furthermore, the company said it continued to work very closely with customers to prepare for the large volume of offshore wind auctions, around 25 GW, expected in the remaining nine months of calendar year 2021.
For the three months to 31 March, the company reported Q2 revenues of EUR 2.34 billion, a 6 per cent increase year-on-year, support by solid performance in its Offshore and Service segments.