Siemens ships first blade from U.S. plant
This August, the new Siemens wind turbine blade factory in Fort Madison, Iowa, shipped its first blades, bound for the Sweetwater Wind Farm west of Abilene, Texas. Each blade (Figure 1), cast in one piece in a single step from glass fiber–reinforced epoxy resin, is 148 feet long and weighs about 12 tons.
1. Blade runner. This huge wind turbine blade was the first to ship from the new Siemens blade factory in Iowa. Courtesy: Siemens Power Generation
Owned by Catamount Energy and the Australian investment banking firm Babcock & Brown, the Sweetwater project will see its generating capacity grow to 505 MW when it completes its final phase this December. Siemens will contribute 80 MW to this phase by supplying 45 of its SWT-2.3-93 wind turbine-generators, each rated at 2.3 MW.
“By expanding our wind turbine blade manufacturing capacity in the U.S.,” said Randy Zwirn, CEO of Siemens Power Generation Inc., “we are able to play a more significant role in helping the U.S. meet its growing electricity demand with clean wind energy and zero carbon emissions. [That demand] is expected to triple by 2020.”
Within the past three years, Siemens, based in Germany, has opened new manufacturing plants in Denmark and Iowa and expanded two existing factories in Denmark. Siemens said it expected to be employing 400 people in its U.S. wind business by the end of September 2007.
The U.S. Department of Energy says its goal is for the U.S. to get 6% of its electricity from wind by 2020. That's an ambitious target, according to many industry sources. Wind, said Siemens's Zwirn, "is a viable, cost-competitive source of renewable energy that will continue to have an important role in the overall energy mix, alongside conventional power generation sources."
Wind power critics, such as veteran energy analyst Glenn Schleede, note that its competitiveness is entirely due to federal and state subsidies, the largest of which is the federal production tax credit of 1.9 cents/kWh. Countering the effect of that credit, recent supply chain problems have slowed the boom in wind power. Schleede recently circulated a report that Clipper Windpower, a partner with BP in wind development in the U.S., saw its stock drop in London trading because of component problems.
Reuters reported that tests at Clipper's turbine factory in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, found a fault in the drive train of the company's 2.5-MW turbine. Clipper said it faced a loss in the first half of the year because it was "constrained" in obtaining externally sourced parts.
In other Siemens news, the company said that a consortium that it heads has won an order to build a two-unit, 800-MW combined-cycle gas-fired power plant in Singapore. As part of the deal, the partners will convert two existing combined-cycle plants to cogeneration service.
According to Siemens, the total value of the deal, including a 10-year service agreement, is $717 million. The Siemens portion of the deal, which includes a Singapore state-owned investment company, is $517 million. The new plant is scheduled to come on-line in early 2010.
GE's frames hit 1,000
Also in August, General Electric sent out its 1,000th F-class gas turbine, to Saudi Electricity Co. for its Riyadh Power Plant No. 8 project. John Krenicki, CEO of GE Energy, said, "Since its introduction in 1987, our F-technology [turbine] [Figure 2] has made a major impact both on the power generation industry and General Electric Co. Over those 20 years, activities associated with all aspects of our F-technology, including sales and services, have produced in excess of $30 billion for the company."
2. "F" makes the grade. GE's F-class turbine has racked up 1,000 sales, making it the best-selling combustion turbine-generator technology in the world market. Saudi Arabia's national electric utility bought No. 1,000. Courtesy: GE Energy
GE says that since December 2006 it has pocketed $3.6 billion in revenue from gas turbine–based projects. Of those projects' 77 turbines, 45 are F-class.
Krenicki said the sale of the 7FA gas turbine to the Saudis represents a "surge in new power plant activity in the Middle East, one of the most important growth areas for GE Energy in the world today. The need for additional supply in the region is driving strong demand for power plant equipment and services, as evidenced by the recent commitments our business has received."
The Frame 7FA delivered to the Saudis is one of four to be shipped to Riyadh. GE says its F-class turbines operate in 45 countries and have racked up more than 20 million operating hours. Numbers like those, says GE, make the company the "global leader in advanced gas turbine operating experience."
GE introduced F-series combustion turbine technology in 1987. According to industry data, the company's 7F is the most reliable F-class machine in the industry, with a 99.1% reliability ranking. GE claims its Frame 9FB machine has achieved an efficiency of 58% in a combined-cycle configuration.
Of the F-class machines that GE has shipped, about 875 have come from the company's plant in Greenville, S.C. Many of the remaining 125 units were built at the company's factory in Belfort, France.
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