REM: GE Renewables’ 2022 losses will reach $2bn

General Electric has released its Q3 earnings – and the outlook for its renewable energy division is dim in the short term.

GE Renewables’ annual losses in 2022 will reach $2bn, said executives. Medium term and longer term, the outlook is brighter.

"Near term, customers continue to defer investments into the future," said the company’s chief financial officer, Carolina Dybeck Happe, during an earnings call.

The company also confirmed that it will axe 20% of onshore wind jobs because of costs headwinds, officials said. CEO Larry Culp was more specific in an interview with Reuters, in which he said the job cuts would occur in the next 12 months and would involve cuts at the division’s headquarters.

“We’ve all been disappointed with our year-to-date performance" in renewable energy, he said on the earnings call.

Culp said that onshore wind is "the battleground" for GE as the company strives to make its renewable energy business profitable the year after next. Onshore wind is the company’s largest renewable energy business.

The company’s largest onshore wind market, the US, has experienced uncertainty as government tax credits for wind energy production have expired, in large part leading to a 15% year-on-year drop of revenue in its renewable energy division in the quarter.

GE Renewable Energy’s quarterly orders were at $3.7bn, down 43% y/y, and revenues were $3.6bn. The segment’s loss margin was 26%, down from a loss of 3.6% a year earlier.