Siemens Gamesa hosted the groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion of its nacelle plant in Taichung on the 21st of September, and plans to add more than threefold of land at 90,000m2. The expansion is expected to hire more than three times of local employees, as well as construct two new plants and one warehouse for local production and assembly of nacelles for offshore wind turbines.
The Taichung nacelle plant of Siemens Gamesa had started the expansion construction in September 2022. The first phase had commenced in April 2020, and managed to assemble the first nacelle locally in Taiwan during August 2021, before delivering all of the 111 nacelles for the first phase of the 900MW Greater Changhua Southeast and Southwest Wind Farms, among which 75 of the 111 nacelles had come from the first phase of Siemens Gamesa’s 1st phase Taichung nacelle plant.
Marc Becker, CEO Offshore Business Unit of Siemens Gamesa, commented, “We look forward to investing threefold the amount in Taiwan that will contribute to the leadership of green energy transformation.” The expansion of the nacelle plant will adhere to the government’s requirements in localization, and implement continuous production and assembly procedures at the same base. The hub and back-end production lines configured by the new plant will be fully produced and assembled locally, including relevant processes such as the final assembly of generators.
The nacelle plant of Siemens Gamesa is scheduled to commence the local production for SG 14-222 DD offshore wind turbines starting from the second quarter of 2024. Each nacelle will involve tens of thousands of components, and will create additional localization opportunities for Taiwanese suppliers. The nacelle plant, after expansion, can reach up to an annual capacity of 2GW. Aside from supporting the 1,044MW Hai Long Offshore Wind Project and third phase of block development, Siemens Gamesa will also be joining hands with the supply chain to export Taiwan-made nacelles to projects in Asia-Pacific that will further facilitate industrial upgrades and accomplish the vision where Taiwan becomes the cluster of nacelles for offshore wind turbines.
Taiwanese employees of Siemen Gamesa’s initial nacelle plants will be heading to Europe in early October this year for advanced training. The first batch of 21 employees comprise of 15 nacelle technicians, as well as 6 managers and back-end staffs, will undergo a 15-month training.
For the first stop of the training, the group will undergo a 3-month training at Siemen Gamesa’s wind turbine plant in Brande, Norway, where they will lean about the relevant process and technology for various offshore wind turbine models of the company. Subsequently, the group will head to the company’s offshore wind turbine nacelle plant in Cuxhaven, Germany, during 2023, where they will work closely with local colleagues who are experienced in nacelle production and assembly for an entire year.
(Cover photo source: Siemens Gamesa)