I was a bit surprised to read (in German) Siemens' CEO Joe Kaeser comments in Houston yesterday. After saying that his firm was "born in Germany, raised in Europe, and at home across the world" (note: my back translation from the German, not his original), he apparently added this:

"If you want to influence a country's energy policy, you just have to do the opposite of what's being done in Germany. Germany is subsidizing renewable energy to the tune of nearly 500 billion euros guaranteed. I hope that Germany at least manages to export wind turbines. But supporting photovoltaics in Germany makes about as much sense as planting pineapples in Alaska."

(Also note that this is a back translation from indirect speech, so his original wording - which I have not seen - may be somewhat different.)

Have I mentioned that Siemens has quite a small share of the German wind power market? Yes, I believe I did. Siemens did not even enter the wind sector until 2004, when it took over Bonus AS of Denmark. The firm apparently knows a lot about photovoltaics, for it focused on concentrated solar power more than PV, partly within the Desertec project, which did not pan out (note to Joe: the Sahara is probably too dry for pineapple plantations). The global PV market is set to skyrocket from now on, but Siemens has nothing to sell.

And let's not forget Siemens' recent sales brochure, which it tried to pass off as a serious recommendation for the Energiewende. Or the ridiculous claim that the 2011 nuclear phaseout would raise German power prices fivefold.