Siemens 'boosted' by energy operations / Low natural gas prices
Siemens / The Wall Street Journal
Siemens has raised its profit outlook after large orders - “particularly in Power and Gas and Wind Power and Renewables” in Europe and the Americas - pushed third quarter order figures beyond forecasts. The company now expects basic earnings per share this year to be between 6.50 - 6.70 euros, up from the 6.00 - 6.40 euros forecast at the beginning of the year. “The power and gas and wind divisions drove bottom line growth,” writes Christopher Alessi in Wall Street Journal. With 480 million euros, third quarter profits in power and gas were 69 percent higher than in 2015 (285 million euros), and in wind power and renewables 178 percent higher at 143 million euros (51 million euros in 2015).
Read the Siemens press release in English here.
Read the article in English here.
Check24 / Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Natural gas is at its lowest price since 2010 at an average of 1,236 euros per 20,000 kilowatt hours (kWh), comparison portal CHECK24 reports. This was because of competition and the offers of alternative suppliers to the traditional utilities, writes Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in a separate article. The average price per 20,000 kWh natural gas in the basic utility contract (1,463 euros) was 63 percent more expensive than the one demanded by alternative suppliers (895 euros).
Read the press release by Check24 in German here.
Read a CLEW factsheet on the role of Germany’s municipal utilities.
Handelsblatt Global Edition
Several automakers claimed lower carbon dioxide emissions for new cars than was actually the case, according to a 2011 study by the Federal Highway Research Institute (Bast), writes Handelsblatt Global Edition. For six models included in the study, CO2-emissions were more than the permissible 4 percent higher than what manufacturers had claimed. Germany’s transport ministry told Handelsblatt that the study has been included in its own investigation following the diesel emissions scandal at Volkswagen.
Read the article in English here and the study in English here.
German Biogas Association
150 new biogas plants with a joint capacity of 23 megawatt were installed in 2015, the German Biogas Association (Fachverband Biogas) reports. Some 130 of them were small facilities running on liquid manure, others included biomethan and waste fermentation installations. 2015 marked the least addition to the German biomass-power capacity since 2000, the association said. Twenty plants were retired in 2015, leaving a total installed capacity of 4,018 megawatt that can supply eight million households. With the 2016/2017 reform of the Renewable Energy Act, the sector was regarding the future more promising, a press release said.
Read the press release in German here.
Federal Network Agency
Prices for solar PV installations have gone down again in the latest round of tenders in Germany, the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) said. Twenty-five bids for a total of 130 megawatt auctioned capacity were successful in the fifth round – all of them belonging to corporate contenders. The auction was conducted after the “pay-as-bid” method and attracted 62 bids with a 311 megawatt capacity. The average successful bid was at 7.23 cents/kilowatt-hour. In the previous round it was 7.41 ct/kWh. The highest successful bid was 8 ct/kWh.
Read the press release in German here.
Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)
Germany’s coal sector remains strong enough to noticeably hinder the energy transition, writes Stefan Bößner of the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) in a research paper. He examines the coal sector in Germany amid the Energiewende with the goal of shedding light on how stakeholders in the status quo are framing their case against the Energiewende, and how their arguments might be countered constructively. Bößner proposes several options and policy priorities for a successful Energiewende in regards to the coal sector.
Read the research paper in English here.
German Coal Importer Association (VDKi) / Dow Jones Newswires
While global hard coal production fell by 3 percent in 2015, Germany’s imports rose by 2 percent to 57.5 million tons compared to 2014, according to German Coal Importer Association (VDKi), writes Dow Jones Newswires. The reduction was not a sign of “a global Energiewende” - and such a transition was not in sight, VDKi chairman Wolfgang Cieslik said at a press conference.
Bloomberg Technology
With a new sub-brand, Mercedes-Benz is planning its own line of electric vehicles, write Elisabeth Behrmann and Christoph Rauwald for Bloomberg Technology. The German carmaker will challenge BMW and Tesla Motors Inc. with two sport utility vehicles and two sedans, sources “familiar with the plan” told Bloomberg. “Germany’s luxury-market leaders need to show they too can make electric innovations that capture the imagination of buyers, and they’re facing emissions regulations that require low-pollution vehicles,” write Behrmann and Rauwald. Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche had announced in June that the company would unveil an electric car capable of driving about 500 kilometres at the Paris motor show in September.
Read the article in English here.
