Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h / t Net Zero Watch; Shareholder Fury: According to the FT, catastrophic financial losses in Siemens’ wind power unit are a threat to the financial reputation of the entire company.
Siemens Energy’s Struggling Wind Unit Blows Germany’s Biggest Event
Investor quizzes management after four profit warnings in 18 months
Joe Miller in Frankfurt
Even as youth groups regularly demonstrate against climate change in the streets below his Munich office, Christian Bruch has a defiant tone.
“People are looking for a silver bullet. . . work for [energy] Bruch told the Financial Times in the summer of 2020, as he was set to take charge of Siemens Energy. “[But] In the coming decades, we will need natural gas. ”
His unfashionable stance failed to attract investors. Weeks later, against the backdrop of a rising Green party, Siemens Energy plunges at the launch of the stock market in Frankfurt after becoming Germany’s largest-ever spinner. Those already invested in the fossil fuel company are more drawn to its only clean energy business – the fast-growing Spanish wind turbine maker Siemens Gamesa, or SGR .
However, it is this renewable energy unit – not the gas and coal contracts that make up the bulk of Siemens Energy’s balance sheet – that now threatens the company’s future and is driving shareholders away. Their biggest headache, Siemens.
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SGR’s problems reverberated throughout the Siemens Energy boardroom. They have raised doubts among executives about whether European and American companies can compete in the wind energy sector, or whether with solar they will eventually be cut. because Asian imports are cheaper.
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There’s a clear explanation for why Asia has undermined European manufacturing so badly – China’s economy is coal-powered.
Siemens and other major European manufacturers face a growing disadvantage compared to Asia, due to the dizzying rise in energy prices in Europe. European energy prices are skyrocketing largely because European countries have embraced wind turbines and solar panels made by Siemens.
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