Coronavirus company news summary

8 April

India has turned down a power distributors’ petition to not buy electricity from renewable sources, invoking force majeure. The government has eased the requirement for prepayment or a letter of credit to help power distributors already in financial distress. India’s nationwide lockdown to limit the spread of the coronavirus has crashed the electricity demand.

Russian nuclear company Rosatom chief Alexey Likhachov said that normal working may resume before May. He sees no necessity to alter the schedule of its new-build projects in foreign countries. There have been 10 cases of the company’s staff exhibiting Covid-19 symptoms, out of which “at least one” has tested positive.

Danish wind turbine supplier Vestas has suspended its financial guidance for 2020 due to the interference caused by the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, which has disrupted the company’s manufacturing, installations and supply chain. Vestas group president and CEO Henrik Andersen said: “Unfortunately, the pandemic continues to spread and with no clear prognosis on when key wind markets such as the USA, Brazil and India will recover, we are suspending our guidance due to the poor visibility for the remainder of the year.”

Industry body WindEurope has warned that the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic is bound to create short-term liquidity uncertainty for the wind energy sector as lenders will shift focus on managing liquidity instead of lending capital. In its latest report, WindEurope noted that the pandemic will have a moderate impact on international supply chains for wind energy but may cause delays in the development of new wind farm projects.