(Wiesbaden, August 31, 2022) ABO Wind looks back on a successful first half of 2022. At 9.6 million euros, the Group's surplus generated in this period is significantly higher than in the first half of 2021 (6.5 million euros). Total output also grew by around 50 per cent compared to the first half of the previous year. Revenue and increase in inventory add up to 127.3 million euros for the first six months of 2022 (first half of 2021: 83.9 million euros). "We are sticking to our forecast and continue to expect a consolidated profit for 2022 as a whole at least at the level of the previous year," said Managing Director Dr Karsten Schlageter. For the calendar year, the Managing Board currently does not expect such a significant increase in earnings as for the first half of the year. In 2021, the Group's net profit amounted to 13.8 million euros. The 2022 half-year report is available in German on the company’s website, as are previous annual reports in English.
It is not only the latest key financial figures that document the continued successful business development. In the first half of the year, the company also succeeded in further expanding its development portfolio. ABO Wind is currently working worldwide on wind and solar parks and battery storage projects with a total output of more than 20 gigawatts. The development portfolio is shown on the homepage - broken down by country and maturity level. In addition, the company is working on further renewable energy projects with a total output of 15 gigawatts, mainly very large wind farms with several gigawatts of capacity, which are to supply electricity for a planned green hydrogen production.
Three of these large projects are in Canada and have a total capacity of eleven gigawatts. ABO Wind presented these projects in August on the occasion of the signing of a Canadian-German hydrogen agreement, which the governments of both countries concluded in the province of Newfoundland (see press release from 24.8.)
"We have been working for some time on large renewable energy projects at sites that are well suited for the production and export of green hydrogen," Schlageter explains. Most of these are locations without an efficient power grid, but with large areas suitable for wind power and access to seaports. This offers the possibility of shipping the hydrogen; often after having been converted into ammonia, which is easier to transport. In some of these projects, ABO Wind is solely responsible for the development of the renewable energy projects. Partners are then involved in planning the hydrogen infrastructure. In other projects, the entire planning is in the hands of ABO Wind. The medium-sized company is interested in integrating suitable partners into these large-scale projects in order to further increase the chances of success.
"The energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine has once again increased the momentum on the topic of hydrogen," Schlageter notes. The interest of politics and industry in the flexibly usable energy carrier is greater than ever. Therefore, ABO Wind has also further intensified its activities. Some of the planning linked to hydrogen production has now progressed so far that ABO Wind has identified these projects in a separate development pipeline. It is presented on a website dedicated to hydrogen activities.
Due to the additional technical complexity associated with hydrogen production, the still missing reference projects and the economic challenges, ABO Wind presents these projects separately and does not assign them to the regular development pipeline. However, the need to be innovative does not scare anyone at ABO Wind. "The fact that hydrogen projects of this magnitude are new territory motivates our employees even more to lead them to success," emphasises Schlageter.
In Wahlheim, Germany, ABO Wind recently built a hybrid project consisting of a solar plant and battery storage and also a wind farm at the same location. The battery stores electricity from the photovoltaic system for a short time and feeds it into the grid when demand is high.
In the first half of 2022, ABO Wind constructed a large turnkey stand-alone battery storage facility in Kells, Northern Ireland, which now stabilises the island’s power grid.
The German Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck signed a Canadian-German hydrogen agreement in Stephenville, Canada, in August. On this occasion, he spoke to ABO Wind’s Managing Director Dr Karsten Schlageter about projects with which the company wants to contribute to green hydrogen production.
