German conglomerate BayWa AG has witnessed “flourishing” sales of solar PV components take its renewables segment to new heights in the first nine months of 2021.
While the company did not provide a specific figure or breakdown of revenue, BayWa AG noted that sales output of solar components was up 72% year-on-year. It said the “flourishing trade in PV components” helped lift the company’s renewables segment and offset an expected decline in its conventional energy business.
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Indeed, BayWa’s renewables business – BayWa r.e. – continued to gather pace in the first nine months of 2021, with total revenues up 67% year-on-year to €2.219 billion (US$2.53 billion). By means of comparison, the company’s conventional energy segment grew revenues by just 10.7%.
Furthermore, BayWa r.e. earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) for the reporting period more than trebled to €69 million, and the division increased its total share of revenues within BayWa’s broader energy business from 50.1% recorded in the first nine months of 2020 to 60% in 2021.
Solar PV products across the spectrum have experienced price surges on the back of further volatility in the cost of materials, from polysilicon to aluminium, while shipping and logistics costs have also caused turbulence in the wider solar value chain.
Klaus Josef Lutz, CEO at BayWa AG, said the business had taken advantage of “largely favourable” market environments while also “deflecting the disruptions in global supply chains” because of its strategy and positioning in the market.
Project sales by BayWa r.e. planned for the fourth quarter are expected to offer further tailwinds for the business, Lutz said.
“We are currently reaping the benefits of what we have been sowing since 2008: our strategy of internationalising agricultural trade, investing in renewable energies and, most recently, restructuring our agricultural business in northern and eastern Germany – all that is now paying off,” he said.