What will become of Adwen?

Although there is still time until 17 September to place a bid for Adwen, the decision seems to be clear. The joint venture is owned by French energy giant Areva and Spanish turbine manufacturer Gamesa and is to be sold after Gamesa had accepted a takeover offer by Siemens earlier this year. Siemens, already world leader in production of offshore wind turbines had, however, initially signaled to have no interest in the 5- to 8-megawatt Adwen turbines.

Thereupon both JV partners agreed that over a three-month period other interested parties can place a bid. Recently it became known that American conglomerate GE actually has thrown its hat into the ring and placed a bid. German turbine manufacturer Senvion has also shown an interest in taking over, as various reports said (We reported previously).

That, however, now appears to be invalid because the bids were obviously unacceptable. French newspaper Le Figaro and Reuters report unanimously, Siemens now seems to have decided to become active and take over the share of Gamesa by themselves: 60 million euros should thus go to Areva, and also – which is more important – Siemens wants to keep agreements about constructing  a blade and nacelle factory in Le Havre, France, as well as to keep the German arm of the company. GE on the other hand was only interested in the technology, however, they did not want to get involved in France and Germany in order to create jobs.

Adwen's pipeline is well-filled though: The JV was awarded the contract for the 500MW offshore farm Saint-Brieuc by Iberdrola in the first round of the French tender, as well as two other French projects, each about 500MW.

All sides have refused to comment on the events so far.