European power main Equinor stated it’s chopping 20% of the workforce, or about 250 jobs, in its renewable power division on account of continued financial challenges.
The Norway-based firm stated the layoffs are a part of the corporate’s effort to streamline its operations. Equinor in current months has canceled offshore wind tasks in a number of international locations, together with France, Portugal, Spain, and Vietnam. It additionally has backed away from a few of the firm’s initiatives in Australia.
“We now have determined to cut back the variety of individuals working with renewables in Equinor,” an organization spokesperson advised Reuters, including, “As we’ve stated beforehand, we’ve exited some markets and prioritized present markets and decreased the enterprise improvement actions.”
Equinor has had a U.S. presence since 1987, primarily in oil and gasoline exploration. The corporate has stated its U.S. investments are second solely to these in Norway. The corporate has been a serious participant within the world offshore wind trade, which has been challenged in a number of markets by inflationary pressures, excessive rates of interest, and provide disruptions. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to kill the offshore wind trade within the U.S.
Business analysts have stated the present macroeconomic atmosphere worldwide is placing strain on the expansion and profitability of the trade, which has resulted in a number of tasks being delayed or canceled. The U.S. Power Info Administration (EIA) lately stated about 2,400 MW of deliberate installations off the U.S. coast have been canceled prior to now 12 months, together with the Ocean Wind 1 and a pair of tasks in New Jersey.
Shell earlier this 12 months exited the deliberate 2.4-GW SouthCoast offshore wind mission off the Massachusetts coast. The corporate this spring stated it might cut back its offshore wind division workforce by way of 2024, with most of these cuts occurring within the Netherlands.
BP additionally has scaled again its offshore wind plans, a part of CEO Murray Auchincloss’ technique to cut back the corporate’s publicity within the renewable power sector.
Offshore wind is the main focus of most of Equinor’s efforts in renewable power. The corporate has stated it’s going to restrict its focus to a few giant tasks, together with Britain’s Dogger Financial institution, Baltyk 2 and three in Poland, and Empire Wind 1 off the coast of Lengthy Island in New York.
Equinor has beforehand stated the corporate has a goal of putting in 12 GW to 16 GW of renewable power era capability by 2030.
—Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER (@POWERmagazine).
