Frankfurt am Main/Berlin – IG Metall and employee representatives from Siemens Energy are concerned about the latest developments in the expansion of wind energy. They warn of unfair competition from China with serious consequences for Germany as an industrial location.
At stake are not only good jobs in the wind power industry, but also the energy transition as a whole and a secure energy supply in the long term. The federal government must now take targeted industrial policy measures, wind farm operators must counteract this with responsible corporate strategies and rethink their purchasing policy. Specifically, the employee representatives are calling for the rapid implementation of the European Net Zero Industry Act to protect domestic jobs and value creation.
The reason for the warning is the preliminary contract for the order of 16 wind turbines for the Waterkant offshore project with a total output of 270 megawatts in China. This means that the first Chinese providers are now to become active in the German wind energy market. This is problematic because the Chinese state massively supports its wind energy companies and thus distorts competition. Domestic manufacturers and jobs in one of the most important sectors of the future are coming under pressure and economic dependence in the sensitive field of energy supply is increasing.
Jürgen Kerner, Second Chairman of IG Metall: “After the solar industry, we are exposing another future technology to the risk of falling victim to unfair competition. This shouldn’t happen. If Germany aspires to be a leader in green technologies, then we must shape this with clear political will.
The energy crisis following Russia’s attack on Ukraine showed how critical dependency can be. We must not lose control of critical infrastructure – and this includes energy systems. As IG Metall, we expect that the safety of the system is given greater priority during construction than getting cheap components. The wind farm operators are responsible here, as are politicians who have to adapt tender conditions accordingly.”
Robert Kensbock, Chairman of the General Works Council and Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Siemens Energy: “We cannot explain to our colleagues how, in terms of industrial policy, we can allow thousands of jobs to be endangered by unfair practices and why we are not much more politically active for a real one level playing field, i.e. fair and transparent competition conditions. Our colleagues expect to be protected from unfair practices.”
Horst Hakelberg, Chairman of the General Works Council and Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Siemens Gamesa Germany: “Politicians must take care of protecting wind energy in order not to endanger tens of thousands of jobs. At Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy alone, which is wholly owned by Siemens Energy, around 27,000 employees work in wind energy worldwide, including around 3,500 in Germany. Across Europe, around 300,000 employees work directly or indirectly in the wind industry. Above all, we must not deprive ourselves of the opportunity to implement the energy transition independently. New dependencies must be avoided at all costs.”
Similar to steel production and electric cars, China also appears to be pursuing the strategy of dominating the market and displacing competitors when it comes to wind turbines. The competition from the Far East is apparently building up massive excess capacity with government subsidies in order to push into markets outside of China. Four out of five of the largest wind turbine manufacturers are already located in China. The manufacturing and service capacities are still predominantly in the hands of German or European companies. However, the subsidized Chinese competition is already building up capacity in Europe and Germany.