Green Tech: German Air Conditioning for America

fOn average, every day one of the 500-tonne giants leaves the Cuxhaven plant and sometimes travels across the North Sea around the world. Siemens Gamesa has been manufacturing tall nacelles for offshore wind turbines here since 2017. Some of the barges also have a final destination in America, where it is planned to significantly expand the use of wind energy.

Since the US government under President Joe Biden launched the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a roughly $370 billion program for green technology, many local companies have been talking about a shake-up in the market. German energy technology group Siemens Energy is also increasingly feeling the impact – whether it be onshore or offshore wind power (Gamesa), grid expansion, or electrolyzers to produce hydrogen.

“I have a positive attitude towards the market. It’s crazy what is invested. There has never been such growth in this industry,” Energy CEO Christian Bruch said recently during a green technology press conference. Huge investments are being made across Europe and the US in climate change-adjusted energy transition. Europe is by far the most important market for the Dax group. The energy crisis that arose as a result of the war in Ukraine has once again clarified the urgency of expanding the use of renewable energy sources. Brussels and Berlin are also working hard to speed up processes, according to the industry. However, lengthy approval procedures, huge bureaucratic efforts, and often non-transparent funding criteria for local programs are still slowing down. According to Bruch, the US differs from the IRA in its openness to technology and long-term planning. And this, in turn, makes investments attractive for companies. This is good news for crisis-ridden energy tech company Siemens Energy, which has been independently listed on the stock exchange since fall 2020.

“In the next 15 years, as much will be invested as in the last 150 years”

In the first half of this financial year, which ends at the end of September, Siemens Energy received about 5.5 billion euros in orders from the US, after 2.5 billion euros in the same period of the previous year. For comparison, there were about 13.3 billion euros from Europe, the Middle East and Africa during the same period, of which about 4.8 billion euros came from Germany. Of course, energy technology is a project business, which often results in separate large orders that can distort the picture. However, Siemens Energy is saying everywhere that there is still a lot to be done from America – and the German group wants to be ready for it.

“The US has recognized the importance of transmission and grid issues. The next 15 years will see as much investment as the last 150 years,” said Tim Holt, who is responsible for all technologies in the group that convert and transport electricity. Of course, given the outdated infrastructure, America also has a lot to catch up, even more than here. And in America, approval processes sometimes take many years, as Holt, who lives in Orlando, USA, knows.

Source: Frantfurter Allgemeine

Get in Touch

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Related Articles

Latest Posts