Siemens’ Financial Changes, TPI-Nordex Blade Supply Deal, Norway’s €1B Wind Investment

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast

Statkraft plans to invest 1 billion euros in wind energy in Norway. TPI Composites expands its supply agreements with Nordex to manufacture blades in Turkey. Siemens transferred an additional 8% stake in Siemens Energy to its pension fund. What does this mean for the industry? Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of IntelStor, Phil Totaro, and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard, Joel Saxum. And this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you need actionable information about renewable projects or technologies, check out IntelStor at intelstor.com. Norwegian utility Statkraft has announced a 1 billion euro investment in new and existing onshore wind farms in Norway. The goal is to double Statkraft's annual wind production to 2, 500 gigawatt hours. The wind investment is part of a larger 6 billion euro plan for Statkraft's operation in Norway. Phil, why does every new investment start with a B as in billion? This is a lot of money moving around on onshore wind at the moment. Philip Totaro: It is, and they want the power, and they're taking it seriously, and it's, interesting because, we talk about, challenges and like the U S offshore wind market and whatever. And then, you go over to Norway and you got a big utility company plunking down a billion Euro to double their, wind output. They obviously get it and they care and they're moving forward. They're going to be, in good stead for, a while. Joel Saxum: One of the big things here too, to know is that Norway runs mostly all on renewable energy already, and they're, flush, as an electrified society. So I believe that a lot of this, if there's new, production that will be going. They're gonna take advantage of some of these HVDC, subsea lines that are heading to mainland Europe and over to the UK to sell a lot of this power, into those other markets. So some of this is less of a, let's electrify Norway, it's more of a, let's take advantage of Norway's natural resources and sell it to other parts in, In the UK and Europe. Philip Totaro: They also have, not just this desire for offtake, but they're electrifying a lot of the vehicles like Norway is the number one place in the world for, electric vehicle sales as a percentage of, all sales or a percentage of population. And, you're right, Joel, because they can take this power. And, pipe it into a broader European market where, you know, different countries, it's, thankfully prices have come down in this winter wasn't so bad. But we're, only back to 2021 levels in, in terms of prices, average prices in throughout Europe at this point. Because we've stabilized the situation now with, Russia and Ukraine, but things can change. Things can escalate. He who hath the power is going to be able to, use it and to sell it. Allen Hall: TPI Composites has expanded its supply agreements with wind turbine maker, Nordex in Turkey. TPI will add two new wind blade manufacturing lines, bringing its total capacity with Nordex in Turkey to eight lines. The agreements are going to run through 2026 with up to three additional years. The expansion builds upon a 10 year relationship between Nordex and TPI in Turkey. This is interesting because you don't really hear too much about Nordex in the United States at the moment.