OREANDA-NEWS. March 12, 2015. Siemens has struck a deal to supply wind turbines to a large offshore German wind farm in a deal that will boost a flagging order book and it said it would begin testing within days its largest yet turbine model.

The wind turbine unit of the German engineering firm will provide 67 of its 6 megawatt (MW) turbines, the largest it has on offer although it will soon start selling a 7 MW model. It said it had struck the deal with Highland Group Holding Ltd.

Although it did not give any financial details of the deal last August it won a similar order for 67 6 MW turbines which it said then was worth almost 650 million euros (\\$688 million).

Siemens provided the turbines to the largest offshore wind farm in the world, Britain's London Array at over 600 MW. But projects the size of 400 MW are still rare. The Bard 1 farm of the same size as Veja Mate is the largest in Germany.

The Veja Mate project is in the German part of the North Sea amongst a hub of wind farms including the 400 MW Bard 1, with the BorWin electrical power transmission facilities at its heart.

The first turbines are due to be installed in March 2017 and Siemens also has a 15-year service contract, it said in Copenhagen where it was attending Europe's largest offshore wind energy conference.

The deal should help boost Siemens' energy unit which recorded a big drop in orders for wind power and renewables in the fourth quarter to 1.32 billion euros from 2.26 billion euros a year earlier. It put that result down to a tough-to-beat comparative quarter the previous year.

Siemens also laid out its strategy to bring the costs of producing electricity by wind down to 10 euro cents per kilowatt per hour from around 14 now, which involves larger turbines on the one hand and smaller transformers that transmit power.

The 7 MW turbine will be tested in Denmark "within days" and should be on offer in 2017 or 2018 after receiving its full certification, said Michael Hannibal, chief executive of the offshore division of Siemens Wind Power.

The new model is an upgrade, which means aside from a few modifications, parts and supply chains remain the same while power is increased and maintenance costs are reduced.

Siemens' new model is still smaller than the largest yet which is being developed by a Vestas joint venture and be installed in the second half of next year.