Chinese wind turbines ruled out for multi-gigawatt Baltic Sea projects
Oil player Orlen, Central and Eastern Europe's largest company, says use of local suppliers is 'part of economic strategy'
The head of Orlen Neptun, the offshore wind unit of Polish refiner Orlen, has categorically ruled out using Chinese wind turbines in the company’s multi-gigawatt offshore wind pipeline in the Baltic Sea.
Asked whether the developer would consider turbines by Chinese OEMs – given possible shortages of large machines in the booming European market for wind at sea – Janusz Bil, president of Orlen Neptun’s management board, at an event in the Polish offshore wind port town of Swinoujscie said: “The simple answer is not at all.
“That is part of the economic strategy of Orlen and also the EU.”
Partially state-owned Orlen is central and eastern Europe’s biggest company by revenue and also among the biggest developers of wind at sea in Poland.
In a consortium with Northland Power, Orlen is an advanced development of the 1.2GW Baltic Power wind project about 23km off the coast near Łeba, which is slated to see first monopiles installed this month, according to Bil, and is expected to be commissioned next year.
Orlen Neptun in 2023 won seabed leases for five further wind projects in the Polish Baltic Sea, with a combined capacity of about 5.2GW.
The company plans to enter Poland’s first CfD tender, a 4GW auction envisaged by the government for late 2025, with one of these projects, the about 1GW Baltic East project that would be located adjacent to Baltic Power.
Bil said the company at Baltic East and its other projects in Poland’s ‘second wave’ of offshore wind expansion also intends to employ wind turbines of about the same size (15MW) but hasn’t committed itself to using Vestas machines as in Baltic Power, nor decided which will be its partner in the additional projects.
“We don't believe that turbines will already be available and commercially viable from European suppliers [that are] larger than 15MW. That's the assumption.”
That assumption may not hold for long as it is widely expected that OEM Siemens Gamesa will present a prototype of a 20MW-plus offshore wind turbine soon.
Vestas Szczecin offshore turbine factory
But while Siemens Gamesa doesn't have a factory in Poland yet – a definite advantage in the rapidly developing new market due to strict industry-wide local content pledges – its western rival Vestas has.
Full completion of the facility will take place in coming months and will allow for full production start-up, Vestas said.
“Our factory in Poland shows that Europe has the potential to become a global hub for offshore wind," chief technology and operations manager Anders Nielsen said.
"We can unlock this potential by turning offshore ambitions into viable projects."
All in all, Orlen targets to have 5.2GW across four offshore wind farms up and running by 2035, as part of its strategy to add 12.8GW of battery energy storage and renewables capacity by that date.
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