Wind power’s ‘colossal market failure’ threatens climate fight

  • 📰 nationalpost
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 73 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 32%
  • Publisher: 80%

Sverige Nyheter Nyheter

Sverige Senaste nytt,Sverige Rubriker

Turbine makers are still struggling to translate soaring demand into profit

Wind power heavyweights Vestas Wind Systems A/S, General Electric Co. and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA are reeling from high raw material and logistics costs, changes in key clean-power subsidies, years of pressure on turbine prices and an expensive arms race to build ever-bigger machines.

Western turbine manufacturers are now retrenching to shore up their bottom lines. The companies say they’ll compete for fewer projects in fewer markets, raise prices, streamline their product lineups and cut manufacturing costs. That comes just as surging fossil fuel prices should be making renewables more competitive.

It doesn’t help that the wind market is constrained by limited permitting for new projects. The process usually involves federal planning and local approvals, and both can get gummed up by people who don’t want the giant structures dotting their view of a horizon.Those dynamics have pressured margins just as turbine makers have invested heavily to roll out bigger turbines that can capture more wind.

Vestas briefly held bragging rights for the world’s biggest turbine when it announced a 15-megawatt structure, but in an example of China’s increasing muscle, it was quickly overtaken when Ming Yang introduced a 16-megawatt machine in August.Photo by REUTERS/Vincent West/File Photo The same factors that pressured Siemens Gamesa’s results could weigh on profitability at GE Renewable Energy, the largest supplier of wind turbines in the U.S., for the next several quarters, says Citigroup analyst Andy Kaplowitz. He expects the division to post a first quarter negative operating margin of 16 per cent, more than double what it sustained in both the prior-year period and last year’s fourth quarter.

 

Tack för din kommentar. Din kommentar kommer att publiceras efter att ha granskats.
Vi har sammanfattat den här nyheten så att du kan läsa den snabbt. Om du är intresserad av nyheterna kan du läsa hela texten här. Läs mer:

 /  🏆 10. in SE

Sverige Senaste nytt, Sverige Rubriker

Similar News:Du kan också läsa nyheter som liknar den här som vi har samlat in från andra nyhetskällor.

Britain moves ahead with mandatory climate plans for companiesBRITAIN-CLIMATE:Britain moves ahead with mandatory climate plans for companies Gm
Källa: globeandmail - 🏆 5. / 92 Läs mer »

Bruised Wall Street faces gauntlet of worries after market tumbleChief among market participants’ worries is a Fed that has repeatedly ratcheted up its hawkish rhetoric as it gears up to fight the worst U.S. inflation in nearly 40 years
Källa: globeandmail - 🏆 5. / 92 Läs mer »