Siemens has announced that it plans to divest its solar business in order to focus more on wind energy and hydropower.
As a part of its reorganization plan, Siemens says it will slim down its Energy sector and discontinue its Solar & Hydro division, which the company separated from its Wind Power business back in August 2011.
Michael Suss, Siemens' Energy sector CEO and a member of the company's managing board, says the decision resulted from lower growth and strong price pressure in the solar market and the company’s inability to meet its own expectations in that market.
However, he stresses that the company will remain active in the wind energy business.
"The importance of renewable energies in the global power mix will continue to grow, and hydropower and wind energy will remain the major renewable contributors,” Suss says. “Our renewable energy activities will be focused on these two areas.
“More than 7,000 employees work in the Wind Power division, and another 2,000 work in the related service business - and the division has an order backlog of more than 10 billion euros,” he continues, adding that the company is making solid progress in both offshore and onshore wind.
As a result of the changes, the remaining business activities of Siemens’ Solar & Hydro Division - hydropower and solutions for energy-storage devices - will remain within the company’s Energy sector. Siemens’ hydroelectric activities include the joint venture Voith Hydro for conventional hydro plants and the business of tidal turbines.
Siemens will continue to offer products for solar thermal and photovoltaic power plants - such as steam turbines, generators, grid technology and control systems - that are produced outside of the Solar & Hydro division. However, the company is currently in talks with interested parties to sell its activities in the solar photovoltaics business.
In the future, Siemens’ Energy sector will comprise the following divisions: Fossil Power Generation (thermal power plants), Wind Power, Oil & Gas, and Power Transmission.
