Siemens heads for the ski slopes

For the five major international events held in 2010 – Expo in Shanghai, the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, the Asian Games in Guangzhou and the Winter Olympics in Vancouver – Siemens won contracts worth well over €2 billion. For the last Winter Olympics, Siemens supplied electric motors for hybrid busses and energy-efficient building technology for the media center. Overall, Siemens technology is being used today in more than two-thirds of all ski areas worldwide.

Siemens plans to further expand its business in ski areas in the coming years. Six major winter events will take place in Europe up to 2014, including the Ski World Cup in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany (2011) and in Schladming, Austria (2013). Sochi in Russia will host the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. To date, Siemens has booked orders worth over €600 million in the run-up to the Sochi event, including the delivery of up to 54 regional trains for connecting the city and region, and a combined cycle power plant that will be the primary provider of power for the city and the Olympic Games. Sochi has also launched a sustainability initiative for the Games.

Siemens is also on the starting line at the Ski World Cup in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The company is an Official Supplier for the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup 2011. Siemens is outfitting the international media center. Prior to the event, the company also won orders to modernize the building technologies for indoor pools, hotels, the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Clinic, the town’s Congress Center, the environmental research station on the Zugspitze (Germany’s highest mountain), the municipal utilities, the ski jump and other facilities. In the ski area around Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Siemens technology is used to operate the five most important ski lifts.

Environmental protection is an increasingly important factor in the investment decisions being made for cities and winter sports areas. Siemens is ideally suited to meet these needs with its extensive Environmental Portfolio. In the past fiscal year, the company’s green products and solutions generated revenue of around €28 billion, over one-third of Siemens’ total sales. In Innsbruck, Austria, Siemens operates its own center of competence for alpine infrastructure solutions. The company is one of the leading providers of energy-efficient drives for lifts and gondolas, power supplies, controls for snow-making systems, and other infrastructure solutions. The latest generation of energy-efficient electric motors and drives used for ski lifts and gondolas consume 40 percent less power than older models and are also especially quiet.

Further information and related photos are available online in our special feature at www.siemens.com/press/alpine.