ENERGY
Vestas, a Danish wind giant, warns of supply chain turbulence
By Stanley Reed NEW YORK TIMES
Vestas, the largest maker of wind turbines, saw its 2021 profits fall 38 percent because of supply chain disruptions and volatile electricity prices.
Wind energy projects are being proposed around the world to help meet climate goals, but the largest maker of turbines is finding that supply chain issues and pandemic lockdowns are hampering wind farm construction and hurting financial results.
“It is troubling and challenging out there,” Henrik Andersen, CEO of the Danish company Vestas Wind Systems, said on a recent call with analysts.
Andersen said the company had to recently navigate the disruption caused by the compulsory mass testing of 14 million residents in Tianjin, China, where Vestas has a manufacturing hub, after 20 COVID cases were discovered.
“This is actually what causes some stop and go, and simply just disturbance,” he said. The company warned that profit margins could fall to as low as zero this year.
The situation at Vestas is emblematic of problems facing the wind industry as a whole. Costs of components are rising fast because of soaring prices for steel and other materials. At the same time, choppy delivery schedules and COVID precautions are hampering factory operations and delaying the completion of wind farms.
Utilities and other wind farm developers are hesitating to order new machines because volatile prices for electricity, especially in Europe, are making it difficult to come up with the long-range financial calculations essential for electricity supply contracts.
Andersen said that developers could find themselves in a situation where they are unable to bring wind farms online on time and so, to meet contractual obligations, are forced to buy power at prices that could in Europe be 10 times what they were 18 months ago.
Such problems appear to be industrywide. Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Europe’s other giant turbine-maker, also recently warned that profits would be lower than expected for similar reasons.
Analysts say that the long-term case for wind energy as a source of clean electric power remains strong, although various problems could kill off some of the weaker component-makers and will delay projects. In the longer run, higher electric power and oil and gas prices could even spur the shift to renewables, the thinking goes.
Vestas’ revenue from making and servicing the giant wind machines rose 5 percent in 2021 to $17.6 billion. Operating profit, though, fell 38 percent.