Speaking on Friday as the firm presented its third quarter results, GE vice chairman and CFO Keith Sherin said he expected the 40% decline in sales to cost the company three cents for every share, adding that a fall in new orders was already noticeable.
"[Energy] Orders of $6.5 billion were down 17% [from Q3 2011]," said Sherin.
"We have said it before, but the impact of Wind is huge here. Ex-Wind, energy orders were flat year-over-year. Equipment orders of $3.4 billion were down 24%. Again, ex-Wind equipment orders were up 11%. Renewable orders of $518 million were down 72%. We had orders for 241 Wind turbines versus 781 last year."
However, while turbine orders are already suffering dramatic falls, there has been a spike in sales and shipping as US developers seek to complete projects before the PTC expires at the end of the year.
"We had Renewable revenue of $2.1 billion, which was up 61%. We shipped 1,014 wind turbines versus 633 last year."
