Wheels coming off Vestas
The Danish windmill company with its U.S. headquarters in Portland is really on the ropes, and it sure looks as though we'll be dealing with new management, if not new ownership, shortly:
Investors, citing the company’s bad track record and inability to deliver projects on time, are now calling on management, including CEO Ditlev Engel, to step down. When asked about his future at the press conference announcing the job cuts, Engel said he had no plans to resign.Jakob Pedersen of Sydbank said that confidence in Vestas is "blown completely away."
This is not the first time that Vestas has closed factories. In November 2010, it made similar moves that cost 3,000 jobs in Scandanavia. Some investors and analysts are insisting that the company’s management is the problem.
Vestas is warning that the current round of cuts may not be enough if the Production Tax Credit (PTC) is not extended in the United States. The entire wind industry is calling on US lawmakers to extend the PTC, which grants companies a financial incentive per kilowatt-hour of wind power they generate.
"We will evaluate … 2012 entirely on how the political situation evolves," Engel said.
The current round of reductions cost 182 US workers their jobs and Vestas said 1,600 more are threatened if the PTC is not extended.
Industry analysts said that the US market has turned into a massive disappointment for Vestas and other wind turbine manufacturers.
That super-sweetheart deal the company made with Portland's "urban renewal" geniuses looks worse and worse for the city's taxpayers by the day.
| Posted at 7:18 PM | Permalink |
|
Comments (6)
Good riddance to Vestas and the rest of the wind industry. Wind is not a viable or reliable energy producer. It will help individuals stay off the grid but not entire communities.
Posted by Darrin | January 21, 2012 8:57 PM
I think you're missing the REAL beneficiary of the Vestas Urban Renewal interest free (and now, probably principal free) loan: Gerding Edlen was in serious trouble after the failure of its big condo project in Seattle:
http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/print-edition/2011/01/07/gerding-edlen-surrenders-bellevue-towers.html?page=all
Handing them the Vestas $66MM project was essentially a bailout.
The no-interest loan to Vestas made that possible.
Posted by Max Rockbin | January 21, 2012 9:16 PM
I don't think I missed it, exactly:
https://bojack.org/2011/08/if_vestas_is_sold_will_it_leav.html
https://bojack.org/2010/08/unanswered_questions_about_the.html
Posted by Jack Bog | January 21, 2012 9:26 PM
Don't worry, I'm sure Vestas has something in their budget to pay off that $10M interest-free loan early.
You do remember that BS PDC told us?
Posted by Steve | January 22, 2012 7:28 AM
Wind and solar are beautiful, just not reliable.
And since DEQ and EPA are shutting down the Boardman coal fired electric plant we should say yes to shipping coal out of St. Helens. That will replace a few of the jobs lost at the outdated and downsized paper mill in that city.
Posted by Don | January 22, 2012 11:54 AM
Oops. I'm pretty new to your blog and hadn't seen your previous postings on Vestas/Gerding Edlen.
Still, my point was really about the timing of the Vestas deal combined wi. Gerding E. getting nailed on their giant Seattle project for an unknown loss (I had seen some stuff making it look like it could put um under and which had been going South since the housing collapse. Lux condos were hit harder than anything. C.f South Waterfront...). There was some public posturing. Like Morgan Stanley saying they had no prob. losing millions and would love to finance another GerdingE deal.
I think GE was nailed on some other big projects too. Cyan in the Pearl was their I think. And I find it hard to believe they've done well on their Hawthorne building w the crazy mechanical parking structure, but I don't really know.
And wasn't it their building too at the corner of MLK & Multnomah? Wasn't that a bomb too? (I could be talking out of my ass on that one. But that's what comments sections are for).
Posted by Max Rockbin | January 22, 2012 12:21 PM