Siemens Energy’s CEO said that sales of Siemens Gamesa’s onshore wind turbines will resume at the end of September in southern Europe, after being halted for well over a year.
Christian Bruch said: “We are going to put a limited number on the market initially, because we are going to do it step by step, but you will see sales activity before the end of September.”
The wind turbine arm of the business sacked its CEO Jochen Eickholt at the end of July amid the business’ financial turmoil, which was heavily influenced by its turbines. In 2023, persistent manufacturing flaws with the company’s wind turbine units resulted in a loss of €4.6bn ($4.94bn). The issues have prompted Siemens Gamesa to undergo restructuring in a bid to become more economically secure.
At the time, Eickholt said his departure was part of the restructuring plan as “the time has now come for a generational change at Siemens Gamesa”.
Another aspect of the restructuring plan entailed shifting towards onshore wind operations in stable regulatory environments such as Europe and the US, rather than becoming a global player. Aligning with this plan, Bruch said that “you can expect to see us in southern Europe first” as the company restarts sales of its 4.X turbine.
“There will be certain countries we will go to because there are obviously certain structures in the tendering mechanisms that will favour certain regions.”
Although Siemens Gamesa is trying to bolster sales of its 4.X platform in Europe, sales of the 5.X have eclipsed it in northern Europe, where it became the company’s fastest-selling onshore wind turbine, largely due to sizeable projects in Norway and Sweden.
However, some owners of the 4.X platform have said they will refuse to restart operations using Siemens Gamesa’s product this year. Norwegian power company Akershus Energi announced last week that due to a lack of documentation, it will not be restarting its turbines in September.
