Battle of the biggest reignites with reports Siemens plans 21MW offshore wind turbine

German renewables giant Siemens Energy is reportedly planning to produce a 21MW wind turbine in a bid to compete with its Chinese rivals.

Bloomberg News reported last week that Siemens Energy had told its customers that a bigger wind turbine was planned for the end of the decade.

The battle to offer the world’s biggest onshore and offshore wind turbines has been raging for several decades now, with the majority of the attention focused on the mammoth offshore wind turbines, which are capable of much greater generation capacity than their smaller onshore siblings.

In the early part of the previous decade, the race was primarily played out between European giants Siemens, Vestas, and GE. As the decade progressed, however, Chinese players began to dominate, and are currently dominant over their European counterparts.

Just last week it was reported that state-owned power equipment and services firm Dongfang Electric Corporation had installed an 18MW offshore wind turbine, the world’s largest turbine.

The installation of this 18MW giant followed the 2023 race between China Three Gorges Corporation and Ming Yang Smart Energy to install and operate a 16MW wind turbine – a race won in September by China Three Gorges.

Ming Yang has also promised to deliver a 20MW offshore wind turbine this decade, but Siemens Energy looks to be upping the ante once again with its plans to produce a 21MW turbine.

For Siemens, the battle to make the biggest turbines has not been without cost. Late last year the German government agreed to bail out Siemens Energy to the tune of €7.5 billion as part of a larger €15 billion package designed to help it overcome ongoing turmoil in its wind turbine unit.

“The group has a problem as a result of the takeover of the Spanish company Gamesa, faulty wind turbines, which in turn has put the company, which is otherwise in good health and has full order books, in a precarious situation,” German economy minister Robert Habeck said at the time.

Siemens Gamesa was integrated into Siemens Energy in the middle of 2023, bringing with it a number of onshore wind turbine quality issues and challenges in its offshore ramp-up. These issues forced Siemens Energy to revise down its full-year guidance and take on a massive net loss of around €4.5 billion.

Siemens Gamesa also brought with it a €30 million grant from the European Union, to fund the “Highly Innovative Prototype of the most Powerful Offshore Wind” project, or HIPPOW, which aims to deliver “the world’s most powerful offshore wind turbine prototype” after validating “several new technological developments”.

Siemens has reportedly said the proposed 21MW offshore wind turbine will be around 40 per cent more powerful than the company’s current largest turbine, a 15MW turbine with Power Boost.

If the reports are true, new turbine could reignite competition between Western manufacturers after several years of relative quiet as companies suffered losses and managed supply chain issues.