Kawasaki offers gas-based equipment solutions for the local market, but they can be easily transformed to operate on hydrogen, said Masahiro Ogata, Managing Director of Kawasaki Gas Turbine Europe, at the Energy Strategy Summit. In addition, Kawasaki offers a variety of financing solutions to customers.
“We opened the office in Bucharest in order to be present directly on the Romanian market. You know more about Kawasaki from the perspective of the motorcycle market, but this is not the division I now represent in Romania. Kawasaki has been producing transportation for a long time, planes, trains or motorcycles, but the newest division is energy. The group’s turnover last year was over 13 billion euros, and 15% of it was achieved by the energy segment that we also belong to. Now we represent the company locally, in Romania, but also in Germany, and the headquarters is in Japan”, he said. Part of the production dedicated to the cogeneration sector is located in Japan, and another part in Germany.
Kawasaki Gas Turbine Europe entered the German market in 1998. ”We started with a small company of ten people, and now we have 70 employees. We already have over 90 installations commissioned in Europe. Initially, the markets we targeted were Germany and the neighboring countries, but now we have extended our interest to the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe”, he said.
“The business environment is changing faster and faster, and climate change is at the heart of the new plans. We are thinking about how to contribute to solving environmental problems and how to expand. In Western Europe, gas has already been used a lot, to the detriment of coal, but in Eastern Europe there is still a lot of coal, and it is intended to move from coal to less polluting resources. The European Union has adopted the new Green Deal, and we want to support this strategy – Kawasaki has a wide range of products well-suitable for change”, Ogata added, presenting the company’s services.
“Our gas engines are very flexible, they can be switched to hydrogen at any time,” he explained. “In addition, we can provide financing solutions to our customers.
