SIEMENS

The Sea Installer’s first job is installing offshore wind turbines in the UK.

Early in January 2013, what appeared to be a huge creature was spotted off the British coast: the Sea Installer. Some 132 meters long and 39 meters wide, the vast vessel can operate in depths of up to 45 meters regardless of water levels or sea floor composition, and is able to transport up to ten wind turbines simultaneously. Siemens Industry equipped the Sea Installer with a diesel-electric drive system that conserves fuel and reduces pollutant emissions. The ship achieves the stability it needs to install wind turbines by standing on the sea floor with legs that are more than 80 meters long. Its main crane can lift more than 800 metric tons.

The Sea Installer got right to work on its first assignment by installing two Siemens six-megawatt wind turbines at the Gunfleet Sands III wind farm, which is located off the coast of Essex. The ship’s new technology enabled engineers to complete the installation of the two turbines in a record time of less than 24 hours. DONG Energy has already ordered 300 of the new gearless six-megawatt turbines for Gunfleet Sands III. These units will be put through their paces in the Gunfleet Sands project, with large-scale production scheduled to begin in 2014.

The Sea Installer was built in Nantong, China. The equipment it carries was loaded on board in Esbjerg, Denmark. Siemens has a 49 percent share in A2SEA, the company that built the Sea Installer; DONG Energy holds the remaining 51 percent. The rotors and turbines used in offshore wind farms are becoming larger and more powerful because the cost of generating electricity from wind power needs to be reduced. To achieve this goal, the production, installation, and operation of turbines must be as efficient as possible. The Sea Installer can also help out here. It has been designed specifically for the installation of major offshore wind power facilities in deep water.

Many technologies benefit from new materials.

The European-wide Energy Materials Industrial Research Initiative (EMIRI) conducts research into materials for low- CO₂ energy solutions. Siemens, in the form of its global Corporate Technology department (CT), was a co-founder of the initiative, which now has nearly 40 members. EMIRI was launched by European industrial companies. Its goals are to further consolidate the skills and expertise of research institutes and industrial companies in Europe, and to implement research results into industrial applications. “The initiative is designed to increase awareness in the European Commission and EU member states of the relevance of materials research for the creation of forward-looking, climate-friendly energy applications,” says Dr. Ulrich Bast from the Materials Technology unit at Siemens Corporate Technology. The CT researchers’ goal is to support and safeguard the further development of material crossover technologies that are relevant to several of the company’s business units. Topics addressed by EMIRI thus cover everything from low-carbon dioxide electricity production and the storage and transportation of energy to ways of conserving energy by reducing demand.

Siemens has helped refurbish Lady Liberty’s inner workings

The Statue of Liberty has stood atop Liberty Island in New York Harbor since 1886, when it began welcoming visitors and immigrants from all over the world. However, Lady Liberty is getting on in years. That’s the reason why the U.S. government decided to spend $27 million to refurbish her on the occasion of her 125th birthday. A 30-year-old emergency elevator in the statue was also upgraded in line with 21st century standards. The modernization program included the use of a Siemens software solution known as the Totally Integrated Automation Portal. The software enabled Tower Elevator Systems Inc. to plan and install energy-efficient automation systems into the unit. Tower Elevator Systems was able to adapt existing software for elevators so that it satisfied the statue’s requirements. The new elevator will not be used by the general public, but by service and rescue personnel. As a result, firefighters or doctors will be able to get up under the statue’s crown quickly if need be. The elevator is a customized unit unlike any other in the world. Its integrated safety systems ensure that it will run reliably in any conceivable emergency – an essential feature in a statue that welcomes four million visitors each year.

Inspection of existing rotors in Northern Ireland.

Since 2008, the SeaGen tidal current power plant in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough has been delivering an installed capacity of 1.2 megawatts (MW) – sufficient electricity for 1,500 households. In the future, a new model will deliver higher performance at lower cost due to optimized construction. Five of these turbines, each with an installed capacity of 2 MW, are to enter service in a power plant off the coast of north Wales in 2015, supplying some 10,000 households with renewable power. The most striking difference in the new plant is the rotors, which are now 25 percent longer – 20 meters in diameter – and, like a wind turbine, have three blades each rather than two. The advantage of the new design is better distribution of the current pressure, which reduces wear and increases the turbine’s service life. Experts expect double-digit annual growth rates for this sector until 2020. According to estimates, the global potential for power generation by tidal current power plants is around 800 terawatt hours a year, corresponding to three to four percent of global electricity demand.

Automation could lower lithium-ion battery costs.

Experts believe demand for large lithium-ion batteries that can be used as energy storage devices – especially for electric mobility applications – will increase in the future. Automation technology from Siemens will enable battery manufacturers to reduce their production costs and boost productivity. To this end, Siemens has consolidated its expertise in relation to the production of energy-storage devices and in the field of automation and control systems. Together with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the company plans to offer solutions for improving the production processes used by battery manufacturers. In a recently signed cooperation agreement, KIT and Siemens sealed plans to collaborate on a concept for an integrated production control and monitoring system for all of the production machinery at a battery production plant. The goal is to develop a primary control system that will provide online monitoring of all processes via a central computer. The system is to be installed in KIT’s own production facility for lithium-ion cells sometime this year – where it will be able to demonstrate its benefits in terms of both product quality and lower costs.