Vestas CEO on Chinese turbines: 'different world today than 24 or 48 months ago'
WindEurope is making good progress determining which Chinese turbine components Europe can work with and which it should be 'very, very careful about', said Vestas chief Andersen, who also chairs the industry body
A lot has changed in the past two years in how customers view the prospect of using Chinese wind turbines, with price considerations becoming less important, said Vestas CEO Henrik Andersen.
European manufacturers had been quite worried about pushes by Chinese rivals to sell turbines in Europe, particularly for offshore, at much cheaper prices than those offered by Western OEMs, but some of those concerns may be waning as governments are looking very closely into aspects of security and potentially unfair subsidies.
“It is a different world today than it was 24 or 48 months ago,” Andersen said during an investor call on second-quarter earnings.
“People are generally a bit more mature in the way we look at things. And, I think, seeing the geopolitical landscape right now, everyone is fully on board [in regard] to cybersecurity and protective measures of critical infrastructure.
“There are so many other factors right now than a price discussion only.”
Resilience roadmap
His comment came after Germany's energy ministry last week presented a 'resilience roadmap' aiming at reducing the import dependency of the German and European wind industry from Chinese permanent magnets.
The roadmap targets to source 30% of permanent magnets from alternative countries by 2030, and half of them by 2035.
"The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, as well as recent export restrictions imposed by the Chinese government, highlight the vulnerability of the energy supply," Bärbel Heidebroek, president of the German wind energy federation BWE said last week.
"Currently, a very high proportion of permanent magnets and rare earth elements required in the wind industry come from China.
"It is important to reduce one-sided dependencies in order to make our energy system more secure."
The BWE and other wind groups, as well as wind turbine suppliers, jointly drafted the roadmap.
Permanent magnet generators make wind turbines more efficient, more compact, and require less maintenance – especially in the offshore sector.
Regarding European wind turbines, the Vestas CEO added that they are affordable, independent, secure and sustainable, and cautioned that “opportunists” who buy other products may not be able to get their turbines connected to the grid.
“Or it’s a build and sell”, he said. “It might not work down the line.”