Siemens AG’s decision late last month to build a wind turbine assembly plant in Germany will add 1,000 employees to the company’s wind and renewable energy division at the same time that its power and gas division, which makes gas turbines, is cutting back on staff.
Combined with new capacity it previously announced in Egypt, India, and Serbia, Bloomberg estimates that Siemens is adding 3,359 new positions to its clean energy group, an increase of nearly one-third since 2013. Orders for the wind division grew 57% between September 2012 and September 2014, to €7.7 billion (US$8.6 billion).
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“If they’re expanding for offshore [wind], it does imply they have a view of a strong [sales] pipeline in future, which is good for the industry, because there’s a lot of uncertainty post-2020,” said Bloomberg New Energy Finance analyst Tom Harries.
“While the expansion is part of Chief Executive Officer Joe Kaeser’s move to bring production closer to customers, some employees at existing sites will not be replaced should they leave or retire,” Webb writes, citing an interview with Siemens spokesperson Philipp Encz. Across the company, Kaeser has cut 13,100 jobs.
