Success of renewables takes Siemens by surprise

Germany’s industrial heavyweight Siemens did not anticipate the rapid decline in renewable energy prices, particularly solar photovoltaic (PV) power, and consequently it had to implement significant layoffs in its conventional energy branch to compensate for this management failure, Nils-Viktor Sorge writes for manager-magazine.de. “Around the globe, much fewer large-scale power plants are being built than what was presumed just a few years ago”, Sorge says. Meanwhile, the price of solar power has dropped by about 70 percent since 2009, meaning that conventional power plants simply cannot compete with this renewable source any longer in many parts of the world. “Industry experts are at a loss over the energy system’s future," Sorge says, adding that Siemens and other companies now put investment plans on hold and scrutinise future development projects to avoid any further stranded investments.

Read the article in German here.

See the CLEW article Auctions bring German solar power price to new record low for more information.