GE Renewable Energy continued to make heavy losses in the third quarter of 2021, though its losses over the first nine months of the year are below those in the same period in 2020.
The turbine manufacturer reported a loss of $151 million in Q3 for the renewable energy business, compared to a $51 million loss in the same quarter one year earlier.
The company attributed the loss to lower US repowering volumes and supply chain pressures for onshore wind, negative margins for offshore wind as the business works through legacy projects, and lower volumes for grid projects.
The US giant’s renewables division also reported losses in the first two quarters of 2021. However, its losses in Q1 and Q2 marked improvements from the same period one year ago.
It has racked up $484 million of losses in the first nine months of the year – a 23% improvement on the same period in 2020.
GE Renewable Energy’s orders increased 65% to $6.5 billion in Q3 2021, with offshore wind driving most of this improvement.
It reported “modest” growth in its onshore wind orders, mostly driven by services and international agreements. However, this was partially offset by lower US orders due to "production tax credit dynamics", it stated.
Meanwhile, the manufacturer’s revenues were squeezed 7% to $4.2 billion, largely due to onshore wind services with fewer deliveries of equipment for wind farm repowering.
In the third quarter of 2021, GE Renewable Energy received a firm order for the 800MW Vineyard Wind 1 Vineyard Wind 1 (800MW) Offshoreoff Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA, North America Click to see full details project, which is due to be the US’s first large-scale offshore wind farm, signed a memorandum of understanding to work with PKN Orlen on Polish offshore wind projects, and received planning approval for a blade manufacturing plant in the UK.
It also boosted its Haliade-X prototype to 14MW and signed agreements to develop a supply chain for rare earth materials and to develop a 3D printer for casting components for its Haliade-X offshore wind turbine
The manufacturer also received large onshore wind turbine orders in India, Lithuania and the Netherlands.
