With immediate effect, the German offshore wind industry has the team of the “German Offshore-Wind Initiative (GOI)” at its side with highly qualified and locally anchored foreign representatives who support companies in entering the market in Japan, Taiwan and the USA. The project was officially presented on September 15, 2021 at a press conference in the “Nordic Energy Hub” in Hamburg.
In the presence of Thomas Bareiß (Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy), Björn Zindler (Project Manager GOI, Foundation OFFSHORE WIND ENERGY) and Prof. Martin Skiba (Chairman World Forum Offshore Wind), the BMWi-funded project was presented for the first time in front of selected press and company representatives. They also had the opportunity to get to know the international representatives Sayuri Watanabe (Japan), David Chiang (Taiwan) and Mike Matthews (USA) personally and to ask questions about project initiation.
The aim of the project is to promote the export business for German SMEs, to strengthen the German offshore wind energy industry in global competition and at the same time to support the emerging offshore wind nations with bundled expertise. Project partners are the OFFSHORE WIND ENERGY Foundation and the World Forum Offshore Wind (WFO).
Support target markets with German expertise
State Secretary Thomas Bareiß was virtually connected to the press conference and emphasized the importance of the initiative: “The expansion of renewable energies is a global task and a growth market. German offshore wind turbines are cutting edge technology and other countries can benefit significantly from it. We are looking forward to supporting small and medium-sized companies on this path into promising markets. ”
Karina Würtz, Managing Director of the OFFSHORE-WINDENERGIE Foundation added in advance: “The initiative fits perfectly with the objectives of the OFFSHORE-WINDENERGIE Foundation to strengthen the domestic offshore industry in global competition and at the same time to promote the success of offshore wind energy worldwide. We look forward to accompanying the project in Germany and with the WFO we have a powerful project partner at our side. ”
Increase in the expansion target, expansion gap by 2022
The original idea for the project is the fact that in Germany no new wind turbines will go into operation at sea until 2022. This so-called “thread break” has led to a drastic drop in sales and company insolvencies along the entire value chain. This results not least from the fact that it is often not possible for small and medium-sized companies in particular to compensate for economic losses on their home market through international activities without support. The young industry also lacked alternative sales markets. In the meantime, however, offshore wind energy is gaining in importance worldwide as the backbone of the energy transition. In the past three years, a global dynamic has developed in which more and more countries want to participate.
This development can currently be observed most strongly in Japan, Taiwan and the USA – there is a real optimism here. Prof. Martin Skiba , Chairman of the World Forum Offshore Wind (WFO) said: “The World Forum Offshore Wind will contribute to the success of this project as a global platform with its excellent networks in the USA, Taiwan and Japan; I am looking forward to this strong collaboration between WFO and the OFFSHORE WIND ENERGY foundation. ”
An extensive export market analysis, the Bjorn Zindler presented to the audience. A broad online survey also provided an overview of export activities, export opportunities and obstacles to entering the three target markets. Subsequent in-depth interviews with selected company representatives sharpen the task profile of the representatives.
In the future, these will act as a direct link between local market players and the domestic offshore wind industry. The three offices in Tokyo, Taipei and New York are directly integrated into the infrastructure of the local chambers of foreign trade.
Project period and funding
The project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and will run for three years (January 2021 to December 2023). The funding volume is 2.7 million euros (funding rate 97%).
