Words: Dr Ralf Köpke
The reactions in the German, specialist media have been consistently positive. Last September, Deutsche Windtechnik which is based in Bremen announced that it had acquired a 70 percent stake in the Dutch company OutSmart B.V. One of the comments was, “Germany’s largest independent service provider in the wind energy sector is strategically positioning itself to win additional contracts for work at sea.”
OutSmart is not the first company in Germany or abroad that Deutsche Windtechnik has acquired a stake in but it is one that opens up many new opportunities. “Our own range of services had hardly any overlap with Deutsche Windtechnik’s, so we complement each other perfectly,” said Erwin Coolen, one of the three managing directors and founders of the Dutch service provider. He sees the merger as a ‘classic win-win situation’.
Even stronger together
A look at the areas in which both companies have been active until now shows that this is true. In 2013, the German company established a subsidiary called Deutsche Windtechnik Offshore und Consulting GmbH which focused mainly on service and maintenance tasks. Consulting and project support were seen as additional businesses.
The offshore wind farm management activities of the Dutch company, on the other hand, were focused on technical and commercial management, 24/7 remote monitoring, HSEQ management and data analysis to track things such as the amount of power fed into the grid by offshore wind farms.
