Turbine troubles have sent wind energy stocks tumbling — and a slew of issues remain
A Siemens Gamesa blade factory on the banks of the River Humber in Hull, England on October 11, 2021.
PAUL ELLIS | AFP | Getty Images
As the biggest players in wind energy gear up to report quarterly earnings, supply-chain reliability issues are front and center for both stock analysts and industry leaders.
Siemens Energy made the headlines earlier this year when it scrapped its profit forecast and warned that costly failures at wind turbine subsidiary Siemens Gamesa could drag on for years.
It sparked concerns about wider problems across the industry and thrust Europe’s wind energy giants’ earnings into the spotlight.
Siemens Energy is set to report its fiscal fourth-quarter results on Nov. 15. Its shares are currently down more than 35% year-to-date.
Aside from the turbine problems, the German energy giant posted orders of around 14.9 billion euros ($15.7 billion) for its third quarter, a more-than 50% increase from the previous year, primarily driven by large orders at Siemens Gamesa and Grid Technologies. Yet the 2.2 billion euro charge due to Gamesa’s quality issues prompted Siemens Energy to forecast a net loss for the fiscal year of 4.5 billion euros.
Ahead of its fourth-quarter earnings, analysts at Kepler Cheuvreux suggested in a research note Tuesday that despite having already warned on profits, the company “remains vulnerable to large negative cashflow swings in the next fiscal year.”
“We expect Siemens Gamesa to suffer very weak order intake in H1, which will combine with extensive delivery delays and rising customer penalty payments. Challenges at Siemens Gamesa will continue to overshadow resilience in the group’s other divisions,” they added.
Morgan Stanley cut its price target for Siemens Energy from 20 euros per share to 18 euros per share, but retains an overweight long-term strategic position on the company’s stock.
“Valuation for Siemens Energy is currently factoring in a negative value for the Gamesa division, which we believe may have been over penalized,” Morgan Stanley capital goods analyst Ben Uglow said in a research note Monday.
“While we acknowledge the low visibility on Gamesa margin trajectory and that rebuilding investor confidence will take time, we remain Overweight on undemanding valuation and good fundamentals of the Gas & Grid businesses.”
Elsewhere, Deutsche Bank earlier this week slashed its 12-month share price forecast for Danish wind energy producer Ørsted by 36% ahead of its interim earnings report on Nov. 1. The stock has already halved in value so far this year.
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Deutsche had previously highlighted challenges in the wind turbine industry including supplier delays, lower tax credits and rising rates. However, Ørsted’s share price tanked further earlier this year when it raised the possibility of a 2.1-billion-euro impairment charge in its U.S. offshore wind portfolio.
Meanwhile, Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas — despite continuing to bag significant orders — has seen its shares plunge by around 30% year-to-date as reliability concerns plague the wider industry. Vestas publishes its interim financial report for the third quarter on Nov. 8.
Supply chain worries
ONYX Insight, which monitors wind turbines and tracks over 14,000 across 30 countries, revealed in a report Tuesday that supply chains remain the greatest challenge to the sector, with reliability not far behind.
The analytics firm, which is owned by British energy giant BP, interviewed senior personnel at over 40 owners and operators of wind turbines around the world in order to gauge the mood of industry leaders, and found that 57% cited the supply chain as the main obstacle to their operations.
ONYX Chief Commercial Officer Ashley Crowther said the lingering impacts of Covid-19 on manufacturing had just begun to heal — and then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent surge in inflation hit.
“Survey participants are now citing delays on new projects due to longer lead times for supply of new turbines and significant price increases,” Crowther said in the report.
“This is in line with what OEMs have told their investors, for example Vestas noting in their 2022 annual report they ‘increased our average selling prices of our wind energy solutions by 29%’. Similarly for major components, particularly main bearings on newer turbines with large rotor diameters, long delays are leaving turbines offline for extended periods.”
Although supply chain issues are creating problems for operators, the most direct impact has been on OEMs like Siemens Gamesa and Vestas, Crowther noted, as has been evident in recent financial results.
“Major western OEMs have recently reported losses or profit warnings and announced major restructuring projects in order to address the challenges they are facing. Some are even re-thinking their approach to the aftermarket which was always seen as the most profitable part of the business,” he added.
Reliability issues
Those surveyed by ONYX also expressed reliability concerns, with 69% expecting more reliability issues due to aging assets and 56% seeing problems associated with new turbine technology. Just 22% expected fewer reliability issues due to new turbine technology improvements.
“As the sector matures, turbines are getting older and the failure rate of electromechanical systems are increasing with age,” Crowther noted.
“Likewise, the initial operating period of newer turbines are seeing a rash of failures due to shorter development cycles, new turbine designs, and a squeeze on turbine prices. This is resulting in machines that are not durable enough.”
During an initial boom in the wind industry a number of years ago, OEMs faced huge market demand and, in turn, created a variety of turbine designs delivered on short cycles to a customer base seeking to generate more energy with greater efficiency at lower cost, Crowther explained.
“Fast-forward to the present and between the perfect storm of supply chain issues and too many turbine designs to support, OEMs have been losing significant amounts of money, including those paid out in liquidated damages (LDs),” he said.
“Manufacturers have been locked into a price competition spiral, attempting to produce larger turbines for more competitive pricing. But with bigger turbines produced in shorter production cycles, it’s no surprise that manufacturing quality has diminished.”
Rivian has posted a job listing for a steering engineer, specifically mentioning work on a future steer-by-wire system for the company.
Update, Aug 11: Rivian has now specifically mentioned rear-wheel steering in a job posting.
Steer-by-wire is an automotive concept that has been around for a long time, but hasn’t yet reached mass adoption. The idea is to replace (or supplement) mechanical linkages between the steering wheel and the wheels with electronic actuators instead.
There are a number of potential benefits to this, like allowing more customizability or adaptability to a steering system, reducing mechanical complexity, or adding speed-sensitive variable steering ratios.
Although there are also disadvantages, like a reduction in steering feel (although, since most cars are moving to electronic power steering, that was already gone anyway).
But few cars have implemented steer-by-wire systems, or at least not fully committed to them, given that mechanical steering racks are a relatively solved problem and the general inertia of the car industry which would rather stick with a solution they know than switch to something better (haven’t we here, at this EV publication, heard *that* one before…). There’s also the matter of regulations, which have often been written to require mechanical steering systems, and may need updating to allow for steer by wire.
But, steer by wire made it into mass production with the release of the Tesla Cybertruck. This was big news when Tesla committed to this – at the time, it was the only thing on the road to exclusively use a steer by wire system, though there are other cars with partial steer by wire (for example, mechanical front wheel steering, and steer by wire rear-wheel steering).
But it seems to have opened the floodgates, as a number of other companies are working on or have since released steer by wire systems (Lexus, for example).
And now, it looks like Rivian is one of those companies – though we don’t know if it’s for the front or rear. (Update: Well, now we know, it looks like they are at the very least developing a rear-wheel steering system, according to another job listing. Though the company might still be working on steer-by-wire for the whole vehicle, too)
The company posted a job listing for “Sr. Staff Technical Program Manager, Steering Actuator System,” based at its Irvine, CA headquarters (spotted by Rivianforums). This wouldn’t be so exceptional, except that the job posting also specifically points out that “you’ll have full cradle-to-grave ownership of the SBW subsystem.”
So – we know they’re working on steer by wire, to some extent.
But a few other EVs, particularly large EVs like the Rivian R1 platform is, use steer by wire just for the rear wheels – for example the Hummer EV and Rolls-Royce Spectre. These systems are particularly helpful for giant vehicles, because it allows them to be more nimble and make turns that otherwise would require a lot more… negotiation in a giant land yacht.
So it’s possible that Rivian is only working on rear wheel steer by wire here, but we’d like to think there’s a chance it’s working on steer by wire for the full vehicle.
We also don’t know if this would show up on all of Rivian’s vehicles, or only on certain models – the R2 and R3 are in development, with R2 in pretty late stages, and the R1 just got a big refresh. But, perhaps even more interestingly (and very speculatively), VW has invested heavily in Rivian for technology help, so we wonder if we might end up seeing this in VW group vehicles, or Scout vehicles eventually…
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Automakers are scrambling to push their EVs out the door before the $7,500 Federal tax incentive for EVs disappears — and BMW is no different, offering aggressive cash back, owner loyalty, and special financing rates on its just-released 2026 model year EVs.
BMW has a history of offering solid loyalty incentive programs on its EVs in early summer to clear the tail-end of the model year and make room for the incoming builds, but CarsDirect is reporting some unusual loyalty deals from the brand that seem to suggest BMW is keen to capitalize on a spike in EV sales ahead of the Federal tax incentive’s looming cancellation in September.
BMW dealers now have the choice of adding an additional $1,000 loyalty contribution on select 2026 EVs. The i5 and i7 are offered with $1,000 and $4,000 loyalty bonuses, respectively, meaning if you drive a BMW and your dealer opts to tack on the extra bonus, you could save $5,000 on a 2026 i7. These loyalty programs are good when buying or leasing.
There’s also a $1,000 conquest bonus available for drivers of eligible EVs and PHEVs from other brands. This program is stackable with other offers.
Like other EV brands offering huge lease incentives, BMW customers will see the largest rebates on new BMWs when leasing. Now through September 30th, 2026 BMW i5, i7, and iX models are available with a stout $9,900 lease credit, while the bigger BMW XM comes in with a slightly lower, but still substantial $7,500 lease incentive.
Big deals on big BMW i7 sedan
People who prefer to own their vehicles once the payments are up can still score a great deal on an objectively excellent 2026 BMW i7 luxo-cruiser, thanks to the previously mentioned loyalty bonus if they’re previous customers plus a $7,500 Loan Credit that anyone can get when financing their new i7 with the brand’s captive financing company. BMW Bank offers financing rates as low a 3.99% for up to 60 months on the 2026 i5 and i7 sedans, as well as the iX crossover, as well as 4.99% APR 60-month rate on the high-performance XM plug-in hybrid.
The BMW iX, of course, snatched the top spot in J.D. Power’s EV Satisfaction Survey last year, having taken the crown from its BMW i4 stablemate. You can find out what’s behind that score here, or experience it for yourself at a local BMW dealer near you. Click the link(s) below to get a uniquely tailored offer on the exact BMW you want (trusted affiliate links).
SOURCES: CarsDirect, J.D. Power; images via BMW.
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This week, industrial real estate giant Prologis flipped the switch on a rooftop solar project at one of its Franklin Park, Illinois warehouses — the first of 45 such rooftop installations the company plans to deploy in the next two years. Once finished, Prologis’ community solar project will generate up to 82 MW of clean energy!
Co-developed with Illinois utility ComEd and SunVest Solar, the independent power producer, the new rooftop community solar installation in Franklin Park sits atop a 195,000 sq. ft. Prologis logistics center serving a number of local and regional businesses.
Prologis will own and operate the 1.56 MW community solar project, and the energy it generates will serve mostly residential customers, with the minority of the community solar credits created benefiting local businesses.
“We’re proud to join ComEd to officially launch this project, the first of many community solar projects that our energy team is deploying across our Illinois rooftops,” explains Carter Andrus, Prologis’ Chief Operating Officer. “Illinois is one of the fastest-growing solar markets in the country, and we’re excited to help lead its momentum. For us, this is about more than solar panels … it’s about using our scale to make a real difference in the communities where we operate and bring the benefits of clean energy to more people across Illinois.”
Collaborative effort
Prologis is deeply invested in a number of distributer energy resources (DER), including rooftop solar, battery energy storage, and OnDemand Power, a scalable, portable microgrid and power management solution (read: software) designed to provide resilient, backup, and dispatchable energy where and when it is needed across the company’s global portfolio.
“As we continue to support the expansion of solar across northern Illinois, new and planned Prologis rooftop solar sites promise to provide northern Illinois customers additional options for lowering their energy costs via renewable energy connected to the grid,” offers Gil Quiniones, President and CEO of ComEd. “With dozens of additional projects in the pipeline, we are seeing the effect of the pro-solar incentives put in place by Governor JB Pritzker’s administration and how they support a cleaner, more equitable energy future in our state.”
With nearly 800 MWs of rooftop solar and energy storage already deployed and 82 more coming from Northern Illinois alone, Prologis is on track to reach its goal of 1 gigawatt by end of 2025. (!)
SOURCE | IMAGES: ComEd, Sunvest.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
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