Key Companies Represented in the Hanseatic City
The renewable energies industry is becoming increasingly important in Hamburg. In the period from 2009 to 2011, not only Siemens Wind Power but also a large number of international companies either set up branches in the Hanseatic City or greatly expanded their existing activities here. Since 2009, around 2,000 new jobs have been created in renewable energy in the city.
Jan Rispens, Managing Director of the Renewable Energy Hamburg Cluster Agency: “Hamburg has now firmly established itself as one of the world’s leading locations for companies in wind power. At present, the development of offshore wind energy in Germany is attracting a remarkable number of firms to this area, resulting in many companies coming to Hamburg with their management, distribution and product development activities.”
Renewable Energy Hamburg is a specialised network whose membership has already grown to more than 150 since its foundation in the autumn of 2010. The companies involved are either manufacturers or service providers, or are engaged in research and development in the field of renewable energy.
Below you will find brief descriptions of some of the companies that have either established or increased their presence here in Hamburg since 2009.
Siemens Wind Power,
September 2011
Siemens Wind Power
employs a staff of 7,000 around the world and has, to date, installed 9,000
wind turbines with a total output of 11,000 MW. At the future international
headquarters in Hamburg, approx. 500 people will be employed in the wind energy
division. Siemens is the market leader in offshore wind power: One of its
milestones, for example, was installing the “Rødsand II” offshore wind power
plant in Denmark with an output of 207 MW in
2010. The company currently has orders on its books to the value of over 10
billion Euro. Siemens is aiming to become the world’s third-largest
manufacturer of wind turbines by 2012. In Hamburg the group already has a
centre of expertise for offshore substations.
PowerWind, August
2011
PowerWind, a
manufacturer of wind energy installations, moved 120 members of staff into new
offices in Hamburg’s HafenCity to expand its activities there. At its
Bremerhaven site the company produces systems
with rated output power of 900 kW and 2.5 MW. Product development, distribution
and corporate management are concentrated at the Hamburg site.
Gamesa, June 2011
Gamesa is one of the
world’s largest manufacturers of wind turbines and wind farm
developers. Its headquarters are in Spain’s Basque Country. In the second
quarter of 2011 it established a new offshore
branch in Hamburg, where it employs five members of staff. The firm was founded
15 years ago and today has a workforce of 8,000 worldwide. To date, the company
has supplied wind turbines with an output of 22,000 MW and also operates wind farms
in Europe, America and Asia with a total output of 24,000 MW.
Areva Wind, May
2011
The French energy
group Areva has relocated the headquarters of Areva Wind, a manufacturer of
offshore wind energy installations, to Hamburg’s HafenCity, where it now
employs 25 members of staff. The company is simultaneously operating and
expanding its production facilities in Bremerhaven. Areva Wind specialises
exclusively in offshore wind energy installations and currently holds orders
for 600 MW.
GE Wind Energy,
March 2011
In March 2011, GE Wind
Energy opened an offshore technology centre with 60 employees in Hamburg’s
HafenCity, which focuses on developing products and applications, and on
technological research to be used in products. The company plans to invest 105
million Euro throughout Germany in the offshore sector.
Dong Energy, March
2011
The German office of
the Danish energy supplier Dong Energy moved
into new premises in the Docklands at the former fishing port in Hamburg-Altona.
It employs 15 people in renewables. The company plans to establish the offshore
wind farm
“Borkum Riffgrund 1” from 2013, with an investment of 1.25 billion Euro. The
success story of the offshore market leader
began in 1991 close to the Danish town of Vindeby,
with the world’s first offshore wind farm with an output of 4.95 MW. Today, Dong
Energy operates both onshore and offshore wind energy plants with a total
output of 1,035 MW, and employs 6,000 people
worldwide.
TÜV Süd Bereich Offshore-Windenergie (Sector Offshore Wind Energy),
January 2011
TÜV Süd has
established a new offshore wind energy department in Hamburg-Hammerbrook. TÜV
Süd’s Hamburg branch employs 200 people. The offshore department supports
planners, construction firms, investors and operators of offshore wind farms
with certification, technical inspection of offshore structures, compilation of
risk analyses and complete building
monitoring. The department of offshore wind energy also focuses on production
inspection and monitoring for all components.
Nordex, January
2011
Nordex, a listed
company and leading manufacturer of
wind power systems registered in Rostock, moved its headquarters to
Hamburg-Langenhorn in January 2011. Around 500 employees work at this site, and
more than 2,500 around the world. The company
was founded in Denmark in 1985, and now has a success story
stretching back 25 years. Today, 4,606 wind energy installations from Nordex
generate a total of 7,100 MW.
Rabobank
International, beginning of 2011
Based in the
Netherlands, Rabobank International specialises in project financing in the
fields of wind power and biomass, with an investment volume of 50 million Euro upwards.
At the beginning of 2011, the bank established a
branch in Hamburg-Neustadt with two members of staff. In cooperation with
several partners, Rabobank International – one of the leading banks in renewable energy – has financed “Belwind”, an
offshore wind
farm consisting of REpower wind energy systems with an output
of 330 MW, which is located 47 km from the Belgian coast near to Zeebrugge.
Global Wind Power
Germany, 2011
Complete project
development, turnkey installations, current technical and commercial operations
management and the sale of wind farms to investors both in Germany and abroad
make up the core business of Global Wind Power Germany. Its parent company is the Danish Global WindPower A/S, founded in 1999. The
German company was set up in 2003 and in 2011 moved its headquarters from
Harrislee to Hamburg. Here the company’s 11 employees support the largest and
most important market for Global WindPower. In Germany, 191 wind power systems
have so far been installed in 38 wind farms, with a total output of 335 MW.
Global Tech I /
Windkraft Union (WKU), 2010/2011
WKU is a wholly owned
subsidiary of Windreich AG from Wolfschlugen near Stuttgart. It develops,
finances and operates onshore and offshore wind farms. Its new office in
Hamburg employs 30 people, mostly in planning offshore wind farms.
One of its most important projects is the offshore wind farm
Global Tech I, which has its own project development company and 40 employees
in Hamburg’s HafenCity. Windreich AG has sold some of the project shares in
Global Tech I to public service utilities and other investors. Global Tech I is
scheduled to go into operation in 2012 with an output of 400 MW.
Sietas, December
2010
Germany’s oldest
shipyard, in Hamburg-Neuenfelde, landed an order in December 2010 for the first
offshore wind power transport
and installation ship to be built in Germany. Sietas had beaten off
international competitors to secure the contract. The dockyard will deliver the
ship to the Dutch shipping company Van Oord Offshore in 2012. The company also
obtained an option for building an additional ship. Following the insolvency of
the company, offshore wind is an important future
perspective for the remaining employees.
Det Norske Veritas
(DNV) Offshore-Wind Office, October 2010
The Norwegian
certification company Det Norske Veritas (DNV) has set up an offshore wind division with nine engineers, supported by 100 other specialists, in
its office in Hamburg-Altstadt. For many years, DNV has been certifying wind
power installations and projects, and is now responding to the growing demand
in this segment. The acquisition of the Dutch testing house
KEMA has increased the number of employees in the DNV Group to almost 11,000
worldwide.
PMSS, June 2010
The British service provider and
consulting firm PMSS opened a branch in Hamburg-Gross Borstel with two members
of staff. It concentrates on consulting services, technical due diligence
tests, financial services and occupational safety in the offshore sector.
EnBW Erneuerbare Energien (Renewable Energies), March 2010
EnBW Erneuerbare
Energien carries out projects in the field of renewable energy for energy
supplier EnBW. It moved into new offices in Hamburg-Neustadt in order to expand
and now employs a staff of 65 in Hamburg. The team has developed several
offshore wind
farms in Germany and the wind farm “Baltic I” – located 16 km from the
coast of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania and to the north of the
Fischland-Darss-Zingst peninsula in the Baltic Sea – was its first commercial
project with an output of 50 MW. It is supported by 30 members of external
staff.
Vattenfall Europe
Windkraft (Wind Power) GmbH, 2009
The
subsidiary Vattenfall Europe Windkraft GmbH, founded in Hamburg in 2009, implements
both onshore and offshore wind farm projects in Germany. As one of the
world’s largest operators of offshore wind farms, Vattenfall is planning to
build the wind
farm DanTysk, 70 km off the coast of Sylt, by the beginning of
2014. In total, Vattenfall has around 1,000 MW of wind capacity in the
German part of the North Sea, either at the approval or planning
stage or already under construction. Furthermore, the development and
construction of onshore wind farms in the North and East of Germany, and
involvement in research projects for storing wind energy, will be the responsibility
of the continually expanding team that currently includes around 50 employees.
Vattenfall operates wind farms in five European countries, with a
capacity of around 1,400 MW. For the Swedish parent company, expanding its wind power division
is a major part of the shift in its generation portfolio to climate-neutral
energy.
Vestas, 2009
Vestas has been active
in Germany since 1986 and employs approx.
1,800 people in this country. The Hamburg distribution branch has grown
markedly since 2009 and has around 150 employees. The main German branch in
Husum – which is also the headquarters of Vestas Central Europe (VCEU) – is
responsible for distribution, marketing and installation. To date, Vestas has
set up around 5,700 wind power systems in Germany with an installed capacity of
more than 7,000 MW.
Germanischer Lloyd, Renewables Certification, 2009
As of one the leading certification companies in the field of renewables, the GL Renewables Certification developed guidelines for the certification of wind turbines, wind farms and other renewables. They are applied both in the examination of onshore and offshore wind farms and in offshore risk analysis and maintenance systems. In 2011, the Renewables Certification had 147 employees meaning a growth of 7.5% for the period from 2009 until 2011 and one of 28.9% for the period from 2010 until 2011.
RWE Innogy,
2008/2009
RWE Innogy is a
subsidiary of RWE AG responsible for developing renewable energy projects. The
company expanded its activities from 2009 to 2011. Its 170 employees in Hamburg’s
City-Nord mostly design offshore wind farms in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.
The largest project currently planned in Germany is the “Nordsee-Ost” offshore wind farm,
30 km north of the island of Helgoland, with an output of 295 MW. The wind farm
is scheduled to supply the grid from 2014 onwards. Furthermore, in September
2011, RWE Innogy commissioned its first offshore wind installation ship, which will
set up the “Gwynt y Môr” wind park in the Irish Sea with an output of 576 MW.
In total, around 2,000 new jobs have been created in Hamburg in the field of renewable energies/wind power since the beginning of 2009.