Siemens Energy creates 10,000 new jobs
Worldwide, massive investments in power grids are expected in the coming years. Siemens Energy, a long-standing problem area of the Siemens conglomerate, is hoping for a big piece of this cake. Thousands of new employees will be needed for this. The boom has already begun.
Siemens Energy was for years the troubled child of the industrial conglomerate. Persistent losses at Gamesa, the wind turbine builder that Siemens sold to the stock exchange in 2020, plagued the former division. The stock price reached a low point in the fall of the previous year at around 9 Euro, representing half of the company's value since the IPO. However, since then, Siemens Energy has turned a corner. The stock price is now around 25 Euro. According to board member Tim Holt, Siemens Energy plans to hire 10,000 new employees in the power grid division of the company by 2023, an increase of two-thirds. The company also plans to invest more than a billion Euro in new factories and expansions in the USA, Europe, and Asia.
The expansion and modernization of power grids is one of the most expensive parts of the transition to a climate-friendly energy supply. In Germany alone, estimates suggest that investments of up to 500 billion Euro will be necessary in the next ten years to prepare the power grid for power generation based solely on renewable energy sources. The need for investments in the power grid is enormous in other countries as well. According to Holt, US utilities will have to invest "as much in the next 15 years as they have in the past 150 years" in the grid.
"It's already starting to happen," Holt told the "Financial Times," referring to the growing power demand, the expansion of renewable energy, and the aging infrastructure that is now struggling to handle the previous power flows. Siemens Energy, according to Holt, has already felt the beginning of this development. "It's already happening," the manager said. From 2021 to 2023, orders for power grid equipment from the company are expected to increase from 7 billion to 15 billion Euro. In the first half of 2024, the power grid technology division alone is expected to receive orders worth 12 billion Euro.
Siemens Energy is the second largest supplier of power grid equipment in the world, according to the "Financial Times," just behind the Japanese conglomerate Hitachi Energy. Approximately 4,000 of the planned 10,000 new jobs are expected to be created in Europe, 2,000 in the USA, and another 2,000 in India and the rest of Asia and Latin America.
The massive investments required for power grid expansion, which Siemens Energy aims to profit from, present challenges to the capital market. "The market is getting tighter and tighter," Holt said, "and we have to look for alternative ways to finance it." Nevertheless, he remains optimistic that Siemens Energy will overcome this challenge. "Everyone is a little scared of these projections and making these big investment promises," Holt said. "But we are really convinced of these projections."
- Siemens Energy, with its expertise in power grid technology, is well-positioned to benefit from the anticipated investments in infrastructure, aiming to secure a significant share of the projected spending on power grids worldwide.
- As Siemens Energy expands its operations, collaborating with Siemens in the energy transition, they plan to invest over a billion Euro in new factories and expansions globally, including the USA, Europe, and Asia, creating thousands of new jobs.
- In light of the substantial investments needed to modernize power grids ahead of a fully renewable energy supply, Siemens Energy, as the second largest supplier of power grid equipment globally, stands to play a crucial role in the energy transition, addressing the demand for upgrades and expansions in infrastructure.
