$4.3 billion Global Market for High-Voltage Direct Current Transmission Equipment Expected to Reach $11.6 Billion by 2020

Record-breaker: Siemens to supply world’s most powerful 800-kV HVDC transformer to China

Image Credit: Siemens

The global market for high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission currently has a volume of about $4.3 billion (EUR3 billion), with average growth of more than ten percent annually. The volume is expected to climb to $7.2 -$11.6 billion (EUR5 to EUR8 billion) by 2020, of which Siemens Energy expects to have a significant share.

Siemens Energy has advanced to technology leader in the field of high-efficiency, environmentally friendly transmission of large amounts of electrical energy. At the end of the year, the company will be putting into operation a high-voltage direct current transmission link (HVDC) in China. With a transmission capacity of 5000 megawatts (MW) und covering a distance of more than 1400 kilometers this HVDC system recently is the world’s most powerful of its kind implemented.

 Siemens will also be commissioning the world’s largest and highest-capacity 800-kilovolt HVDC transformer in China in mid-January 2010. This transformer is intended for the next even larger HVDC transmission system in China, which at 6400 megawatts (MW) will transport power equivalent to that supplied by 12 average-size coal-fired power plants over a distance of 2000 kilometers. “Our technology leadership offers a good starting basis to become the clear No. 1 on the global market for HVDC”, stated Udo Niehage, CEO of the Power Transmission Division in the Siemens Energy Sector.

Highest-capacity HVDC transmission systems as in China will help us in the future in transporting large volumes of environmentally friendly electricity from the desert for example to Europe, as planned with the Desertec project. “In the future, electricity highways will not only cross borders, they will also connect entire continents with each other”, stated Niehage. “We will only be able to counter climate change by making more intensive use of energy-efficient technologies. We have to develop renewable energies and convert our power supply systems into smart grids so that we can manage the fluctuating amounts of electricity fed into the grid intelligently. Substantial investments will be necessary for this. However, this will be unavoidable if we are to achieve our climate protection targets and significantly reduce CO2 emission,” adds Niehage.

With their innovative power electronics and ability to control the amount of power to be transmitted intelligently, HVDC systems are an important element of a smart grid. Siemens Energy is one the world’s leading suppliers in this area too and will further expand this position. The Siemens Sector expects orders for smart grids totaling more than $8.7 billion (EUR6 billion) through the year 2014. “As global market leader in grid automation, we are already well established in this business. We’re at the beginning of a new era of electricity with smart grids,” commented Niehage.

In the last fiscal year 2009, Siemens earned revenues of nearly $1.4 billion (EUR1 billion) with smart grid technologies. “The smart grid market will also become increasingly dynamic as a result of climate change and programs to boost the economy. Our aim is to grow more than twice as fast the market as a whole,” Niehage added. The addressable market for Siemens will have a cumulative volume of about $43.6 billion (EUR30 billion) through the year 2014. Siemens is targeting annual growth of seven percent in smart grid business and a market share of more than 20 percent.

The energy-efficient connection of offshore wind farms to the power supply grid, high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission systems and solutions for setting up smart grids are part of Siemens’ Environmental Portfolio. In fiscal 2009, revenue from the Portfolio totaled about $33.4 billion (EUR23 billion), making Siemens the world’s largest supplier of ecofriendly technologies. In the same period, its products and solutions enabled customers to reduce their CO2 emissions by 210 million tons.

For more information about Siemens Energy Sector go to
www.siemens.com/energy
http://www.siemens.com/energy/events/smartgrid

European Green Cars Initiative Budgets $7.5 Billion, Focus on Electrification of Road Transport

The European Green Cars Initiative is one of the three Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) included in the European Commission's recovery package. The budget for this initiative is expected to be $7.5 billion (€5 B) to boost to the automotive industry in a time of economic hardship, and support the development of new, sustainable forms of road transport. Of this financial envelope, $6 (€4) billion will be made available through loans by the European Investment Bank (EIB), and $1.5 (€1) billion through support to research, with equal contribution from the Seventh Framework Programme for Research (FP7) and from the private sector. The scope of this initiative is broader than the two other PPP, and research is just one part of it. Several coordinated calls for research proposals were launched in July 2009. These financial support measures are supplemented by demand-side measures, involving regulatory action by Member States and the EU, such as the reduction of car registration taxes on low CO2 cars to stimulate car purchase by citizens.

Greening road transport is necessary to achieve EU and world targets in emissions reductions. In the EU, 19% of total EU greenhouse gas emissions and 28% of CO2 emissions in 2005 are linked to the transport sector. More than 90% of total EU transport emissions are due to road transport. While total EU emissions declined, transport emissions increased continuously between 1990 and 2005 due to high growth in both passenger (28 %) and freight transport (62 %).

Research is underway to develop sustainable transport methods. Such "eco-innovation" will serve both to protect the environment, and to offer competitive advantage to those seeking to create new innovation-driven markets. Nanotechnology is expected to play an increasing role in making road travel greener by reducing car weight, increasing fuel efficiency, and improving battery and fuel cell functions.

Despite its name, the Green Cars Initiative is not only for passenger cars. Under the Green Cars Initiative, the research topics include:
• Research for trucks;
• Research on greening internal combustion engines;
• Research on bio methane use;
• Logistics, transport system optimization; and
• Research on electric and hybrid vehicles, notably research on:
o High density batteries;
o Electric engines; and
o Smart electricity grids and their interfaces with vehicles.

Under FP7, four Calls were launched in July 2009 to implement the Green Cars Initiative, with an overall budget of around $150 (€100) million. The Commission's Directorates-General for Research, Transport and Energy, and Information Society will each launch Calls that focus on electrification of road transport, along with a fourth, joint call on Electric Batteries. In other words, the funding for road transport projects under FP7 in 2010 will all be focused on the electrification of road transport and research into hybrid technologies; a critical mass which is expected to produce a step change in innovation in these technologies.

In the following FP7 Calls, in 2011, the topics for projects to be funded should broaden to the other areas of the Green Cars Initiative: research into trucks, internal combustion engines, logistics, and intelligent transport systems. In 2011, there could be also a Joint Call on “smart grid and recharging systems” between several services of the Commission.