Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) has officially opened an offshore nacelle production factory, built with an investment of around €200m in Cuxhaven, Germany.

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Image: Inauguration of Siemens Gamesa's nacelle plant in Cuxhaven, Germany. Photo: courtesy of Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, S.A.

The new Cuxhaven facility will enable the Spanish wind turbine manufacturer to assemble nacelles for offshore wind turbines.

Announced in August 2015, the Cuxhaven project marks Siemens Gamesa’s first production facility for offshore wind turbine components in Germany.

The nacelles to be manufactured at the facility are for the company’s next-generation wind turbines, which are designed to be deployed at sea.

Siemens Gamesa expects to employ about 850 people at the Cuxhaven factory by the end of 2018 with more than half of these to work directly in manufacturing of the nacelles.

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy CEO Markus Tacke said: “With our new plant in Cuxhaven, Siemens Gamesa is sending a clear signal regarding the power of renewable energy.

“Numerous innovations continue to make offshore wind power even more competitive with other sources of industrial power generation. Lowering the Levelized Cost of Energy from offshore wind is a key focus area for us, benefitting our customers, ratepayers, and society-at-large.”

The company broke ground on the 55,000m2 production factory in June 2016.

Siemens Gamesa said that the nacelle factory has been constructed quite near the Germany North Sea port, thereby enabling the direct transport of large and heavy wind turbine components by ship from the factory to offshore wind farms.

Cuxhaven Mayor Ulrich Getsch said: “With Siemens Gamesa’s inauguration of the world’s largest plant for offshore wind turbine nacelles here in Cuxhaven, we have achieved another major milestone in the development of the German Offshore Industry Center.”

Recently, Siemens Gamesa has been named as preferred supplier by wpd for its 640MW Yunlin offshore wind power project in Taiwan.

Under the contract, Siemens Gamesa is set to supply 80 of its SG 8.0-167 DD offshore wind turbines for the new offshore wind farm, which will be located nearly 6km from shore in the Taiwan Strait.