There are very few destinations worldwide that can boast a “home to more than 170 companies in the wind energy industry, representing the sector’s entire value creation chain.” And yet Germany’s Bremen and Bremerhaven can do just that, as Dieter Voss (Innovation Manager Wind Industry, for Bremeninvest), explains…
PES: Welcome to PES. Can you tell us a little about your organisation and your involvement with the wind industry?
Dieter Voss: Bremeninvest is the lead agency of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a German Federal State comprising the two cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven. Here, in the centre of a region with two million inhabitants in the north-western part of Germany, Bremeninvest is responsible for attracting new business investment,
for encouraging the expansion of existing industry and business, and for developing new domestic and international trade for the State of Bremen.
By providing early and successful support to development projects,
fostering cooperation between businesses and universities and assisting in the acquisition of third-party funding, the economic development agencies
behind Bremeninvest have succeeded in recent years in attracting strong and committed companies and research
facilities to our location and in encouraging their development.
At the same time, infrastructures needed, particularly for the offshore wind industry, have been created in Bremen und Bremerhaven. Many highly skilled jobs needed in the onshore and offshore
wind power industries have been created here in recent years. A dense network
of businesses and education facilities has grown over the years in this wind power stronghold.
Today, Bremen and Bremerhaven are home to more than 170 companies in the wind energy industry, representing the sector’s entire value creation chain. Their performance is impressive; enterprises in both cities have already overseen the installation of more than 3.5 gigawatts
of wind power capacity and have long been successful abroad as well.
PES: So what does Bremen have to offer that other destinations don’t?
DV: Bremen and Bremerhaven have been relying increasingly on wind as an economic factor since the turn of the millennium and have become the centre for a cluster of wind energy businesses and services which is unique in Germany. Short distances and well-functioning networks enable dynamic collaboration at its best.
Project planning companies, manufacturers, service providers and research institutes are not the only ones to appreciate the synergetic effects between business and research and between older and newer industries, or to have benefited for many years from the targeted and continuous support provided by the city-state’s government.
Many aspects are interlinked all along the value creation chain. The industry finds the best conditions here for ensuring that they can be successful both domestically and beyond Germany’s borders.
