Siemens Energy, majority-owner of turbine OEM Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE), is planning a foray into the Chinese offshore wind market under a cooperation agreement inked this week with power group China Huaneng and Guangxi province to develop a major hub for the sector serving Southeast Asia, said a statement from local authorities.

The cooperation agreement was signed by China Huaneng, Siemens Energy China and the Qinzhou city government after local officials met in the provincial capital city Nanning with top executives from the companies, according to a provincial government news release.

The three parties agreed to invest 110bn yuan ($16.6bn) to develop a Qinzhou-based offshore wind industrial hub, which would include offshore turbine assembly, to support project development in the region, the province's statement said.

Details of the proposed assembly plant’s capacity or the technology it would handle have not been specified.

Siemens Energy is “confident to push forward the construction of the manufacturing hub efficiently and look forwards to exploring further cooperation on other areas such as hydrogen energy”, executive vice president of Siemens Energy China Yao Zhenguo was quoted as saying.

Siemens Gamesa said in a statement to Recharge that it was not a party to the deal.

The role of SGRE – the world’s biggest supplier of offshore wind turbines – in the Chinese offshore market to date has mainly been via its licensing of technology to domestic group Shanghai Electric, which has agreements relating to some of the European group’s machines.

Offshore Wind Hub for ASEAN?

According to the agreement, the offshore wind industrial hub aims to serve a wider “Southeast Asian (or ASEAN) region”, especially, the Gulf of Tonkin – the northwestern waters of the South China Sea shared by China’s Guangxi and Hainan provinces, as well as northern Vietnam.

The offshore wind market in this region remains nascent, but its potential has attracted growing attention from Chinese and international players.

Guangxi and Hainan have yet to install any turbines in the sea, in spite of China’s newly-energised role in driving the global offshore wind capacity growth. However, both have taken steps this year to kick-start their blue-ocean renewables markets.

A month ago Guangxi’s government announced its first-ever offshore wind target to install 500MW of offshore turbines by the end of 2022, with a long-term policy underway to build up to 30GW, Recharge understands from sources in the regional government.

The province is especially keen on establishing the Qinzhou offshore wind manufacturing base that could supply 1GW turbine per year, Recharge previously reported.

Last month the regional government also concluded an investment deal with China State Shipbuilding Corp, which committed of building a subsea foundation factory in the manufacturing hub.

Hainan’s government has yet to formalise its offshore wind strategy. But the province has approved two Chinese utilities – State Power Investment Corp and China Datang – to kick off deep-sea offshore projects.

Both provinces are now battlegrounds for major Chinese wind players, as offshore project resources in other areas have been heavily mined already.

Meanwhile, Vietnam is emerging fast as a hot-spot for global wind developers and OEMs, with big plans offshore to match its already vibrant onshore market, including a thriving intertidal ‘quasi-offshore’ sector.

Note: Amends earlier version to include Siemens Gamesa statement that it is not a party to the agreement.

Wind

Siemens Energy eyes China offshore wind hub to serve Southeast Asia