A trio of the world's highest-profile wind power CEOs was in the headlines this week as each wrestles with the massive challenges facing their companies and industry.
First up was Larry Culp, chief executive of US industrial giant GE who has the task of preparing the newly-created GE Vernova energy business for a spin-off next year. A huge challenge in that ambition is turning around the onshore wind arm of the former GE Renewable Energy unit, which as a whole lost more than $2bn last year.
Also in the news was Christian Bruch, the chairman of Siemens Gamesa and CEO of Siemens Energy, which is currently taking full control of the wind power OEM. Bruch did not mince his words as he flagged the perils facing a European wind industry that he claimed is in “a critical situation”.
Today (Friday) brought the turn of Henrik Andersen, Vestas' CEO, who spelled out the challenging year facing the Danish wind OEM after a tough set of 2022 results, described as a mixed bag of news by analysts who took comfort in predictions of a healthy 2024 in the US wind market.
New York’s growing status as a global offshore wind hotspot was underlined this week as a string of domestic and international big names lined up to bid into the US state’s latest 4.6GW Round 3 procurement.
The likes of Orsted, Equinor with partner BP, RWE, along with US offshore first-timer Invenergy are among those with their hats in the ring for the round.
The outcome could see OEM giant GE build two new plants in the state to build the latest ‘redesigned’ version of its Haliade-X turbine that escapes the ban on US sales incurred after a patent court defeat to rival Siemens Gamesa.
News of the potential industrial investment was timely, given warnings this week of a risk to Joe Biden’s 30GW by 2030 offshore wind ambition from a lack of coastal and port infrastructure.
Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy champion, is set to find itself in the global spotlight as never before later this year when the United Arab Emirates hosts the COP28 UN climate summit.
Recharge this week took an in-depth look at Masdar’s 100GW ambitions in the light of the controversy swirling around its chairman Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the CEO of oil group Adnoc who will also be the summit’s president.
