Siemens started impact pile driving in early March at its new €200m wind turbine manufacturing facility at Cuxhaven in Germany.
The work will see about 1800 concrete piles – up to 30 metres long – driven into the ground at the 170,000 metres squared site.
The facility will be located directly at the edge of the harbour and is scheduled to start production in mid-2017 of nacelles for the next-generation D7 wind turbines.
The production work will include the final assembly of generators, hubs and nacelle back-ends, which are then connected to form complete nacelles.
Siemens said the location at the port allows “heavy components to be loaded directly onto transportation vessels, thereby avoiding expensive ground transportation”.
Siemens president and chief executive officer Joe Kaeser said: “The new Siemens factory will employ up to 1000 skilled employees.
“The expansion of offshore wind power capacity in Germany and Europe represents an enormous opportunity for northern Germany and Siemens.”
Image: an impression of how the plant will look at Cuxhaven (Siemens)
