After falling by more than two-thirds in quarter one 2022, energy storage order intake increased 19% in quarter two for marine and energy solutions company Wärtsilä.
The Finland-based company said that the global inflationary environment has resulted in higher quotation prices, slower customer decision-making, and considerable uncertainty in the investment environment for energy storage during 2022 (as well as liquid and gas fuelled power plants). Its VP energy storage & optimisation Andy Tang recently told Energy-Storage.news that the BESS cost base has gone up 25% year-on-year.
This was clearly felt in the first quarter of the year, when energy storage order intake fell 68% to 260MW. But in Q2, it jumped 19% to 618MW. Overall, energy storage order intake for the first half of the year was still down by 34%, to 878MW.
Wärtsilä derived 45% of its €1.4 billion (US$1.42 billion) Q2 sales from Energy, a segment covering gas power plants, hybrid solutions, energy storage and optimisation technology including the GEMS energy management platform, with the Marine segment making up just over half.
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Company-wide H1 sales grew 27% to €2.6 billion while operating result was €61 million, up 112%.
Håkan Agnevall, president & CEO, said: “The energy market continued to be volatile. However, the demand for balancing power is growing, and we received important orders for both thermal power and energy storage solutions. The service business in Energy performed very well, and is further supported by the recent launch of our Decarbonisation Services.”
Order intakes for its fossil fuel-generating Energy segments, gas and oil, also contrasted substantially quarter-on-quarter, growing 51% and 377% respectively in Q1, but just 6% and 7% in Q2.
Order intake across its whole Energy segment during Q2 2022 was up 51% while net sales grew similarly at 52%, to €633 million. For the entire first half of the year, order intake growth was slower at 25% while sales increased 66%, to €1,168 million.
Recent large energy storage orders for the company (although not all falling within these reporting periods) included 2GWh for Clearway Energy Group’s co-located PV facilities in Hawaii and California and a 50MW/100MW system for a project in the UK.
