Interview with Mr. Weigel, Managing Director of SGL Rotec GmbH & Co. KG

In the 1980s the shipyard was awarded a contract by the German Navy to manufacture attachment parts made of carbon-fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) for submarines. A department for the production of these CFRP components was set up at the shipyard. When the contract was coming to an end Mr. Schaedla started looking for new fields for the department. He decided on the production of rotor blades for wind turbines. The location with its good transport connections – road, rail and direct access to water – was ideal for the transport of the blades. This foresight is paying off today since the large rotor blades for offshore wind turbines can only be transported by ship.

As SGL Rotec we will certainly continue to work together with our suppliers from the region. In the past, several innovative developments have come out of this cooperation. We will continue to use the network and the knowledge we have gained. We also use the proximity to the universities and colleges in the region to promote necessary developments. That the region is attractive for wind energy can be seen from the many new settlements in the region in the past few years. It wasn’t by chance that Bremerhaven was chosen as the location for the new Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology IWES.

Direct access to the water has become indispensable for us. The rotor blades for offshore wind turbines have already reached a length of 61 m and a blade depth of 6 m. In the future, rotor blades will certainly be even larger. Such large rotor blades can no longer be transported by road. The only possibility is on the water. Our location in Lemwerder on the River Weser and direct connection to the harbour at Ochtum ensure that we will also be able to transport the blades we produce in the future.

In the next few years the onshore segment will certainly still have the larger share in the manufacture of wind turbines in our region. In the medium term, however, this will change. Our future is quite clearly in the offshore segment. Besides Great Britain, Germany and especially the North Sea area of Germany are the largest market for offshore wind turbines. All the manufacturers of offshore turbines (Repower, Areva Multibrid and BARD) have established their production plants for the 5MW and larger types of turbine here. Some suppliers have already followed them and others will certainly do so as well. This is necessary purely for logistical reasons.

It is absolutely necessary for the infrastructure to be coordinated with the needs of transporting, storing and loading large and heavy components. In addition, there must be sufficient suitable areas available, which the companies operating in the offshore wind energy segment require for their growth. If these things are put into practice the region will certainly establish itself as a production location for offshore wind turbine components.