Substantial investment gives Oticon oceans of green power
The Oticon Foundation, jointly with LEGO’s parent KIRKBI, has invested a total of EUR 675 million in the erection of a large new wind farm 55 kilometers off the German coast in the North Sea. By the end of 2015, the Foundation’s stake in the wind farm will produce over five times as much green power as Oticon itself consumes worldwide.
”As one of the world’s leading manufacturers of hearing devices, we have a long-standing tradition of using innovation and foresight to improve the quality of life for people with hearing impairment – and this is a vitally important job because there are over 500 million hearing-impaired people worldwide,” said Søren Nielsen, President of Oticon. ”We are a global company and of course we wish to assume our share of responsibility for solving the energy challenges of the future. We are therefore very pleased that as of 2015, we will help produce far more energy from wind than our total global consumption of power.”
The wind farm consists of 77 wind turbines of 3.6 megawatts each with a rotor span of 120 meters. Once the wind farm is finished in 2015, it will generate CO2-free energy matching the consumption of about 285,000 households.
The Oticon Foundation is a commercial foundation which through its wholly-owned investment company, William Demant Invest A/S (WDI), is the main shareholder of William Demant Holding A/S (WDH). Today, as part of WDH, Oticon is among the world’s leading manufacturers of hearing devices. The group has over 7,000 employees and activities in more than 100 countries worldwide.
