A difficult quarter for the world’s biggest wind companies has taken the shine off several renewables darlings amid an accelerating selloff in clean energy shares. Many have suffered stock declines over the past two weeks after bad news in first-quarter earnings including unexpected cable damage for Orsted, missed profits by Vestas, and lowered earnings guidance from Siemens Gamesa.
Wind and solar companies were among the best stock market performers last year, defying pandemic turmoil in the broader energy market thanks in part to government climate pledges and big inflows into new clean energy exchange traded funds. Observers say the sector is normalising after steep gains last year.
“When you fly really high, you can fall further down, and they were really on fire last year,” said Casper Blom, analyst at ABG Sundal Collier. “There is probably a recalibration under way.”