New figures show Enercon clocked a net loss of €190 million and revenue of €4.5 billion in 2018, a dramatic slide from net profits of €306.5 million on revenue of €5.6 billion in 2017.
Enercon's falling financials reflect the paltry 2.84GW of new wind capacity it installed around the world in 2018, compared with 3.5GW in 2017. Market leader Vestas, by comparison, installed over 10GW in 2018.
Enercon's revenue from Germany alone dropped to €2.53 billion in 2018, from €3.2 billion in 2017, while rest-of-world revenue was down to €2 billion, compared with €2.5 billion in 2017.
The OEM predicts stable revenue and slightly smaller losses in 2019, but Germany's dramatic last-year slump is likely to have driven down revenue and increased losses. Exact financial figures won't be available until 2021.
In the first nine months of 2019, Enercon installed only 51 turbines totalling 167MW, just 14% of the 366 turbines for 1,184MW it installed in the same period of 2018.
The company's target of overall installations of 2.85GW in each of 2019 and 2020, rising to 3.5GW in 2021, looks due for sharp revision.
With German onshore wind in the doldrums, Enercon's aim to steadily increase its export share to 75%, from around 44% in 2018, may have to be reached sooner than expected.
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