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Successful 60-Hertz market entry with order for new Siemens “world-record” gas turbine

During his visit to a Siemens Wind Power rotor blade facility in Iowa at the end of April, President Obama called for the U.S. to play a stronger role in renewable energies and the sustainable use of the world’s natural resources. Compared to the solutions currently installed in combined-cycle power plants, the new generation of Siemens gas turbines consumes one-third less natural gas and emits one-third less CO2, while generating the same amount of power. CO2 emissions are a whopping 75 percent below those of coal-fired power plants. In addition, the turbines can go from standby to startup in five minutes and reach full power operation in only 15 minutes. They need only minutes to switch from full power to half power or vice versa, enabling them to optimally compensate for natural fluctuations in rapidly increasing grid feed-ins from wind and solar energy sources. Wolfgang Dehen, CEO of Siemens’ Energy Sector, said: “This is a triple-win situation – for the customer, for the environment and for Siemens.” Siemens expects the H-Class market worldwide to total at least ten turbines a year in the medium-term. Depending on specifications and equipment, the cost per turbine is in the two- to three-digit million range.
After a nearly ten-year development phase – including prototype construction and one-and-a-half years of field tests – marketing of the H-Class, which achieves a world-record-setting efficiency of more than 60 percent, has now begun. On average, combined-cycle power plants in the U.S. currently convert less than 40 percent of exhaust gases into electricity. Equipping all the country’s combined-cycle plants with H-Class turbines from Siemens would yield as much additional power as 25 million Americans consume in one year – without increasing CO2 emissions. This additional power would have a retail value of up to $40 billion.
More than 800 Siemens employees participated in the development of this masterpiece of engineering. Multi-ton components and tiny elements are assembled with painstaking precision. Consisting of more than 7,000 individual parts, an H-Class turbine has an output equal to that of up to 1,200 high-performance sports cars. At 280 tons, each of the 60-Hertz gas turbines ordered for Florida weighs a little more than a fully fueled and fully loaded Airbus A340-300 with 300 passengers on board. The turbines are 11 meters long and about five meters in diameter. At 444 tons, the largest model currently available weighs as much as a fully fueled Airbus A380 and generates enough power to supply the energy needs of a city of 2.2 million inhabitants. Temperatures inside the combustion chamber reach up to 1,500 degrees Celsius, and the distance between the blades and the housing is as small as the thickness of a postcard. Turning at more than 1,700 kilometers an hour, some parts of the turbine blades exceed the speed of sound when in operation. In turbine technology, the letter “H” stands for the highest efficiency class currently available.    
The gas turbines are part of Siemens’ Environmental Portfolio. In fiscal 2009, the Portfolio generated revenue of some €23 billion, making Siemens the world’s largest supplier of ecofriendly technologies. In the same period, Siemens products and solutions enabled customers to cut their CO2 emissions by 210 million tons – an amount equal to the combined annual emissions of New York, Tokyo, London and Berlin. The goal is to reduce annual CO2 emissions in 2011 by at least 300 million tons – the amount of CO2 currently generated in New York, Tokyo, London, Singapore, Hong Kong and Rome put together. 

For this press release

Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global powerhouse in electronics and electrical engineering, operating in the industry, energy and healthcare sectors. For over 160 years, Siemens has stood for technological excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality. The company is the world’s largest provider of environmental technologies, generating €23 billion – nearly one-third of its total revenue – from green products and solutions. In fiscal 2009, which ended on September 30, 2009, revenue totaled €76.7 billion and net income €2.5 billion. At the end of September 2009, Siemens had around 405,000 employees worldwide. Further information is available on the Internet at: www.siemens.com.
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This document contains forward-looking statements and information – that is, statements related to future, not past, events. These statements may be identified by words such as “expects,” “looks forward to,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “estimates,” “will,” “project” or words of similar meaning. Such statements are based on the current expectations and certain assumptions of Siemens’ management, and are, therefore, subject to certain risks and uncertainties. A variety of factors, many of which are beyond Siemens’ control, affect Siemens’ operations, performance, business strategy and results and could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Siemens to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. For Siemens, particular uncertainties arise, among others, from changes in general economic and business conditions (including margin developments in major business areas and recessionary trends); the possibility that customers may delay the conversion of booked orders into revenue or that prices will decline as a result of continued adverse market conditions to a greater extent than currently anticipated by Siemens’ management; developments in the financial markets, including fluctuations in interest and exchange rates, commodity and equity prices, debt prices (credit spreads) and financial assets generally; continued volatility and a further deterioration of the capital markets; a worsening in the conditions of the credit business and, in particular, additional uncertainties arising out of the subprime, financial market and liquidity crises; future financial performance of major industries that Siemens serves, including, without limitation, the Sectors Industry, Energy and Healthcare; the challenges of integrating major acquisitions and implementing joint ventures and other significant portfolio measures; the introduction of competing products or technologies by other companies; a lack of acceptance of new products or services by customers targeted by Siemens; changes in business strategy; the outcome of pending investigations and legal proceedings and actions resulting from the findings of these investigations; the potential impact of such investigations and proceedings on Siemens’ ongoing business including its relationships with governments and other customers; the potential impact of such matters on Siemens’ financial statements; as well as various other factors. More detailed information about certain of the risk factors affecting Siemens is contained throughout this report and in Siemens’ other filings with the SEC, which are available on the Siemens website, www.siemens.com, and on the SEC’s website, www.sec.gov. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in the relevant forward-looking statement as expected, anticipated, intended, planned, believed, sought, estimated or projected. Siemens does not intend or assume any obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements in light of developments which differ from those anticipated.
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Contact

Alfons Benzinger

Siemens AG

Wittelsbacherplatz 2
80333 Munich
Germany

+49 (9131) 18-7034