Picture: Colourbox
The milestone has been achieved less than two years after Siemens completed installation of its second gigawatt of wind turbine capacity at Gunfleet Sands in Essex.
Onshore installations
Siemens’ onshore installations represent a very significant part of the UK’s total generation capacity. With a large installed base in Scotland, Siemens makes an important contribution to the country’s renewable footprint.
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Siemens is pioneering new more efficient gearless turbine technology in the UK, introducing its direct drive turbines for the first time ever at Millour Hill and Lochluichart wind farms in Scotland last year.
Offshore wind energy
Siemens is also the market leader in offshore wind energy, providing innovative turbine technology, grid connections and operations and maintenance in the UK. Installations include the recent completion of the Walney II site off the coast of Cumbria, bringing its total to 12 wind farms in the UK, with many significant installations, such as the London Array, Gwynt-y-Mör, and West of Duddon Sands in development. Siemens will play a major role in the Crown Estates’s Round 3.
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Siemens’ onshore installations represent a very significant part of the UK’s total generation capacity. With a large installed base in Scotland, Siemens makes an important contribution to the country’s renewable footprint. .
Double workforce in the next three years
Siemens is investing heavily in jobs in its wind turbine, grid and operations and maintenance businesses, seeking to double its workforce in the next three years.
Siemens’ proposed £80 million wind turbine facility at Hull will create around 700 jobs directly, and last year Siemens announced the creation of new green jobs in its Energy Transmission business, which develops grid connections and onshore and offshore substations to support wind farms. Siemens has made a major investment in UK based research and development (R and D) with centres for wind power R and D at Keele and Sheffield and grid connections at Manchester (the North West Europe Centre of Competence), and in skills and training, investing £3million in its wind power training facility for wind turbine service technicians at Newcastle.
An exciting market for the industry
Matthew Chinn, managing director of Siemens Energy UK and North West Europe said: "The UK represents an exciting market for the renewables industry, with one of the largest and most ambitious wind energy development programmes to date. The potential of the industry to create jobs, stimulate the supply chain and regenerate the economic landscape is huge. Reaching this milestone at a time when other parts of the economy are retracting is a sign of the potential of the industry. We look forward to the next stage of growth and industry success."
