He had just returned from the world climate conference in Egypt.

"We are on the highway at full throttle to miss our goals," said Christian Bruch, CEO of the energy technology group Siemens Energy, with a view to global warming.

The expansion of renewable energies is much too slow.

There is a lot of discussion about shortening the approval process.

"We hear it, we just don't see it yet," warned the manager at the balance sheet press conference of the Dax group on Wednesday.

Ilka Kopplin

Business correspondent in Munich.

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From his point of view, those who have understood how things can be done better and faster are the USA with their so-called Inflation Reduction Act, a package of measures for the energy transition worth around 370 billion dollars.

“This will attract investment from many companies in the US.

Whether it's from us too, that remains to be seen," said Bruch.

And further: “It is an absolutely critical situation.

A lot will be decided in the next twelve to 24 months,” he said.

One can certainly talk about whether America is funding too much and fueling a subsidy competition, but in his view the need for renewable energies is far too great everywhere.

What makes America different from Europe?

“The USA is open to technology.

We are not talking about green or blue hydrogen, but about hydrogen,” he gave an example.

The funding conditions are simple, everyone can understand them.

"It took a week before the first customers said we weren't doing the project in Europe, but in the USA," said Bruch.

"There is a wave coming that has the chance to industrialize the USA again," he hopes that this will also be seen in Europe.

"If we want to keep our industry here, then something has to happen," he warned.

Don't be surprised if wind power migrates to China

Of course, Siemens Energy, as a supplier of wind turbines, products for grid expansion and grid connection as well as a conventional power plant business, has a great interest in things accelerating in Europe as well.

After all, competition is increasingly coming from China, especially in the onshore wind power business, where suppliers are entering the market with significantly lower prices.

"Of course we see the Chinese competition," he said.

"If you only ever look for the cheapest price, then neither the European nor the American industry will be able to survive," he said.

In terms of industrial policy, then, it shouldn't be surprising if wind power has migrated to China in ten years' time - even if wind turbines are not as trivial to produce as solar panels.

Bruch had little positive to report about the business of the energy technology group.

"The year was really a year in the perfect storm for us - with many boundary conditions that did not always make it easy to act in the economic environment," he said.

Tense supply chains, the processing of the Russian business and inflation had a negative impact.

Sales fell by 2.5 percent to 29 billion euros.

The bottom line is that the loss widened to 647 million euros after a minus of 560 million euros in the previous year.

That came as no surprise, since Siemens Energy had had to lower its targets again in the summer.

The withdrawal from Russia cost around 200 million euros, the sale of a wind farm had a positive effect.

A dividend will not be paid.

Gamesa before full takeover

While the conventional power plant business again ensured good business, the main reason for the weak results was the loss-making business of the Spanish wind power subsidiary Gamesa.

Energy holds two thirds of the shares and is currently in the middle of the complete takeover.

The Spaniards had reported a loss of almost one billion euros for the past year.

"We cannot be satisfied with Gamesa's financial performance," said Bruch.

There are many problems that also affect the competition, but also home-made hurdles that have not been tackled "decisively enough".

At Gamesa, the boss was replaced several times before the restructuring company Jochen Eickholt took over this spring.

The takeover of the remaining 33 percent should now ensure full access.

Siemens Energy is therefore in the middle of the preparations to integrate Gamesa, for example to standardize IT, financial and purchasing processes.

As a first step, Gamesa is to be delisted from the Spanish stock exchange if Energy holds 75 percent of the total capital by the end of the acceptance period on December 13.

Bruch was confident that Siemens Energy would be profitable again in 2024, and Gamesa expected to be in the black again after 2025.

Looking ahead to the new financial year, Bruch expects the supply chains and concerns about inflation to continue to be strained, but is somewhat more confident about business in view of a record order backlog of more than 97 billion euros.

Sales should increase by between 3 and 7 percent, and losses should be significantly reduced.

Investors were convinced on the stock exchange, the price was up a good 4 percent over the course of the day.

The new financial year will be a year of transition, in which Gamesa will turn around, the high order backlog will be processed and the balance sheet will be strengthened.

"Nevertheless, the long-term market prospects for Siemens Energy are very good," said Vera Diehl, portfolio manager at Union Investment.