Industrial group Siemens has resigned itself to never selling another gas turbine in its home country following Germany’s switch to renewable energy, its chief executive said.
Joe Kaeser is cutting 1,600 jobs at Siemens’ power and gas division, which has been turned upside down by the fallout from Germany’s decision to accelerate its nuclear exit and promote renewable energy following Japan’s 2011 Fukushima disaster.
“The way in which Germany’s energy transition is being handled has made it impossible for us to ever sell our fossil fuel-related products and solutions in Germany,” Kaeser said in an interview published in Siemens’ staff magazine on Thursday.
Profit at Siemens’ power and gas division tumbled by a third last quarter and its profit margin dropped to 12.9 percent from 20.3 percent a year earlier as its large gas turbines in particular were hit by overcapacities and huge price erosion.
The Siemens-built Irsching gas-fired power plant in Bavaria, one of Europe’s newest, is to be shut down next year. It is one of many German conventional power stations being pushed out of business by competition from renewable energy.