One On One With Randy Zwirn, president of Siemens power generation unit in the U.S.
Monday, May 22, 2006
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SUSIE GHARIB: As the price of oil gushes higher, many American businesses are turning to alternative sources of energy. Wind energy for example is becoming a popular option and Siemens, the German conglomerate, is one of the leading companies building wind turbines. Joining us now to talk more about this, Randy Zwirn, president of Siemens` power generation unit in the U.S. Mr. Zwirn, a pleasure to you have on our program.
RANDY ZWIRN, PRESIDENT & CEO, SIEMENS POWER GENERATION: Good evening, Susie. It`s a pleasure to be here.
GHARIB: You are certainly an advocate of wind energy, but why don`t you give us your case of how wind energy, wind power can reduce U.S. dependence on traditional sources of oil.
ZWIRN: Well, I think you are right. The discussion on wind power is right at the center of the discussion in the industry today about the need for this country to have a more diverse mix of environmentally compatible sources of generation in the future. If you look at wind power, it is historically been thought of as a tax-driven type of technology. But it`s really moving towards a mature industry. Today over 9,000 megawatts of wind power exist in the U.S. providing electricity to over 3 million homes. We expect that RPS, renewable production standards will be issued by more than 20 states mandating utilities to generate wind power. And the fact is that the Department of Energy is looking for wind power to triple between today, where it only represents 2 percent of the energy in this country to 6 percent by 2020. So I think the industry has come a long way and is really maturing and has great potential for the future.
GHARIB: For those of us who are uninitiated in this field, I mean, are there any risks to relying on wind generation?
ZWIRN: Well, there are. I mean a good wind project has a capacity factor of about 30 to 35 percent which means it runs 30 to 35 percent of the time. So therefore wind is part of a bigger question, this overall mix of generation that is going to be provided. And it will fit in as part of that mix. It won`t in and of itself be able to generate the large amount of base load generation that this country requires in the future.
GHARIB: Well, speaking of the future, looking out 10 years, what do you -- how do you see the energy landscape? How much of U.S. energy dependence will rely on traditional sources of energy like oil versus alternatives?
ZWIRN: Well, I think looking out 10 to 15 years is always a challenge, but companies like Siemens get paid to do that. First of all I think nuclear will play a role as we get out towards 2015. I think by then standard reference nuclear plant designs will be a fact. The other real interesting breakthrough is in the field of clean coal development where with incentives from currently available from the Department of Energy, many major U.S. utilities are seriously looking at coal gasification as the next increment to their base load generation needs. And in fact, only a week ago, Siemens announced that it intends to buy a company in Germany with one of the leading technologies, we believe, for commercial gasification in the world today.
GHARIB: Now these technologies have been around a long time. We`ve heard about coal gasification. We`ve heard about nuclear. What do you think it`s going to take to solve our energy problems in the United States? Is it going to be action by government or it`s going to be innovation by industries and businesses?
ZWIRN: Well, I think, Susie it is a combination of the two. If you look at the energy legislation, some really powerful forces have already been let loose. Because of the extension of production tax credits, we`ve seen a boom in wind power. Because of incentives available for -- for clean coal programs, we`ve seen a move towards gasification. On the nuclear side, clearly there`s been strong encouragement from Washington and the industry and the utility industry and the private sector has responded. And if you look, for example, from the private sector side of the company like Siemens, in the last 18 months alone, we`ve acquired a company that is a world leader in wind technology. We`ve bought a company called Wheelabrator -- which is --
GHARIB: I am sorry to jump in. I would love to hear more, but it looks like we have no more time to discussion the subject. Thank you so much. We appreciate your thoughts and it`s been a pleasure having you on the program.
ZWIRN: Thanks very much. It`s been a pleasure to be here.
GHARIB: We`ve been speaking with Randy Zwirn, president of Siemens power generation unit in the U.S.
