Siemens to supply blades to Shanghai Electric

Siemens and Shanghai Electric are on the verge of launching a joint-venture to supply the Chinese market.

Under the agreement, Siemens will supply blades to Shanghai. In November, Siemens launched a blade manufacturing plant in Shanghai, the company’s first in China.

The facility has the capacity to manufacture 600 blades in the 2.3MW to 3.6MW class. Few Chinese companies can produce blades above 1.5MW while Shanghai produces a 3.6MW turbine.

Neither company was able to comment. However, the two companies cooperate in a number of other areas.

Shanghai has two objectives in establishing the venture. One is to gain control through an increase in equity and the other is to gain access to Siemens’ blade technology.

In July, Shanghai Electric launched a 3.6MW offshore wind turbine prototype off the production line.

In December, Shanghai Electric completed upgrading its production line to produce bearings for large-scale wind turbines. 

Despite the achievements, Shanghai Electric still has to improve a series of key technologies in the wind turbine industrial chain.

These include the development and industrialized production of generators, master controllers and frequency converters. According to industry officials, this is principally behind Shanghai's decision to cooperate with Siemens.