'We don't choose suppliers on nationality': why Statkraft could turn to Chinese or Brazilian wind turbines
International chief at Norwegian renewables giant, Ingeborg Dårflot, also says US not on its radar
“It is a really good opportunity for us to collaborate with a wind supplier in this way, collaborating on developing a wind turbine that is both constructible and possible to operate,” Dårflot said in an interview.
WEG has “an international presence, they’re not only in Brazil, and they can, of course, also be a potential supplier for all the geographies in Statkraft as well”.
The EVP qualified her statement by adding that this didn’t mean that “we are going to go for WEG in our next projects to come” as this was dependent on tendering processes.
“We have our internal requirements for how to do these tender processes, and we're of course also following national and international laws and regulations for how these processes are to be run.”
The same applies to the possible use of Chinese wind turbines, as Dårflot made clear.
Dårflot now extended that to a possible global use.
“We are not choosing our suppliers depending on their nationality,” she said.
The increasing openness by Statkraft and some other developers to possibly deploy Asian or Latin American wind turbines comes at a time when European and US wind manufacturers feel the increased competition by Chinese rivals in global markets, and even a certain push into some European areas.
Dårflot stressed that any turbine suppliers “have to fulfil our requirements when it comes to health and safety, environment, quality, cost, and definitely sustainability requirements as such.”
She added that Statkraft in its projects so far had used “more or less European suppliers” and hasn’t bought any turbines from Chinese OEMs to date. However, she pointed out that European wind turbine manufacturers also have sourced components and sub-contractors from China.
Offshore wind goal
Dårflot also confirmed the company’s goals for wind at sea but outlined a cautious approach by the state-owned group.
“With regards to offshore wind, our plan or strategy is to become a significant player in the Northern Europe region, aiming for 10GW by 2040,” she said.
“I don't think our target is to hunt for or to catch up with the other players [such as Iberdrola or RWE]. Our target is more to build a sustainable, robust portfolio of assets complementing each other within the capital we have available. So, it is more about building a robust platform than competing with other competitors.
'No US plans'
“Orsted is a really strong and capable player, but they have quite a different strategy from Statkraft,” she said, adding that her company as part of a “market-centric approach” is building a portfolio of different technologies that complement each other in countries it has already established a significant market presence.
“We are less exposed with our portfolio and pipeline in the markets where we are compared to Orsted, who have been really unfortunate in offshore in the US.
“The US is a huge and complex market and to have a big enough share or scale in that country, you really have to be big. So as of now, that hasn't been a part of our strategy.”
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