“It is a good result, although the quarter is somewhat down from what we have seen in the record years of 2022 and 2023, when prices were extremely high,” chief executive Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal said.

Lower gas prices, a mild winter and reduced demand were behind the drop in power prices, Statkraft said.

The company’s net profit declined to 6.8bn Norwegian crowns (€580m) from 10.2bn crowns a year earlier.

Statkraft is planning record investments of 32bn crowns in 2024, but changing geopolitics, market conditions and rising costs for technology and capital are affecting profitability, she said.

To free up capital for new investments, Statkraft is looking to sell its district heating operations and find new investors for its biofuel and electric vehicle charging businesses.

Meanwhile, European wind turbine manufacturer Vestas posted earnings last week which put the company back in the black after the company lost more than $1bn (€928m) in 2022.

“The industry is still developing into a maturing industry,” said its chief executive Henrik Andersen.

“We are building scale and as long as there is not that maturity then you always will fight around the next project.” 

BloombergNEF estimates investments hit a record $217bn last year, up nearly 50% from five years prior.

In Germany, Europe’s biggest power market, the lifetime cost of a new onshore wind farm is lower than a gas plant, according to BNEF data. It’s a similar picture for onshore wind power across Europe and even in markets as different as Brazil, India, and the US.

Pricier offshore wind farms off the German coast can also be cheaper than the gas alternative. While it might be cheaper to build and run a new wind farm than a new gas plant, it may still be more expensive when compared with existing fossil fuel-based generation.

• Reporting by Reuters and Bloomberg