Wind power runs into the “headwinds” of rising costs, higher interest rates and removal of tax-payer subsidies and reacts by letting some air out of its future plans
I was tempted to title this article “farting in the wind” .. or “letting the air out of the balloon inflated by taxes and subsidies”
From here:
Wind Power Has A Profitability Problem | OilPrice.com
“Ben Backwell, CEO of the trade group Global Wind Energy Council, stated “What I’m seeing is a colossal market failure.” Backwell added, “The risk is we’re not on track for net zero [emissions] -- and the other risk is the supply chain contracts, instead of expanding.”
How could this possibly be true? The narrative from the “greens” is that renewable energy is the best hope for saving mankind from the evils of hydrocarbon fuels. (Note neither natural gas or oil is a fossil. Do they look like fossils?)
“Many wind companies have felt the triple whammy of inflation, reduced tax incentives, and rising interest rates of the last year, adding to the supply chain disruptions of the pandemic.”
“By November 2022, GE was predicting $2 billion in losses in its renewable energy division, largely due to inflation and supply chain challenges. This has led the company to make cuts, with plans to reduce its global headcount at onshore facilities by 20 percent over a year.”
“estas, the world's biggest wind turbine maker, reported its first annual loss in almost a decade in 2022, of around $1.68 billion. The firm said that its sales last year fell by around 7 percent, and it faced rising costs across several areas.”
“Siemens Energy reported a net loss of more than $943.48 million.”
“Aaron Barr, an industry analyst at Wood Mackenzie, stated “The wind energy market is stuck in this very strange paradox right now… We have the best long-term climate policy certainty ever, across all the largest markets, but we’re struggling through a period where the whole industry, particularly the supply chain, has been hit by issues that have culminated in destroying profit margins and running many of the top OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] and their component vendors into negative profitability territory.”
Strange choice of words “best long-term climate policy certainty ever” = perpetual tax credits and direct payments – subsidies – from governments, plundering scarce tax dollars to create higher energy prices and inflation?
Acres and acres of eye-sores spread across land and sea – removing these acres from any other use and killing all sorts of birds and insects above ground (and who knows what under the sea).
Still, there is a white knight for these eco-warriors assisting the greens to meet Don Quixote 2030 emissions targets (the great Don Quixote like to “tilt” (joust) with windmills.
Guess how?
The usual – misdirected taxes to reward doomed and useless political dogma.
“In the U.S., this has partly been driven by the new tax credits and subsidies expected to arrive from Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.”
Uh huh.
The last sentence in the article says it all.
“But governments around the globe must continue to provide incentives to encourage greater development to ensure that companies are not deterred by major recent losses from rolling out new wind projects.”
Onwards!
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EXCESS DEATHS BACK WITH A VENGEANCE IN THE UK AND GERMANY (SUBSTACK.COM)
I nailed this way back in 2002, then in 2013, and then in Nov2022:
"This winter will be hell, especially in Britain and Germany." - MacRae, Nov2022.
Britain and Germany over-invested in near-useless Wind Power and made the heating of homes unaffordable. That energy shortage, along with the Covid-19 vaxx-caused deaths, contributed to this winter's carnage in those two countries. They were fortunate in that this winter was mild - it could have been much worse.
Politicians are energy imbeciles - keep them away from the hot stove.
I posted the following prediction in Nov2022:
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2022-11-29-dont-be-so-sure-that-the-climate-extremists-have-won
This will not be easy to watch. I told you so 20 years ago.
This winter will be hell, especially in Britain and Germany.
PREDICTION OF THE CARNAGE THIS WINTER IN EUROPE
The cull of the elderly and poor
We published the important conclusions to this debate in 2002 and nothing has changed:
The alleged Climate Crisis is a fifty-year-old scam, and “green energy” is not green and does not produce much useful energy.
The Climate scammers have wasted trillions of dollars and millions of lives on fraud.
EXCESS DEATHS BACK WITH A VENGEANCE IN THE UK AND GERMANY (SUBSTACK.COM)
AND THIS FROM 2017:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/09/23/the-evils-of-climate-enthusiasm/#comment-2164819
[excerpts]
“It is the obligation of responsible, competent professionals to blow-the-whistle on this (global warming) scam, and to encourage the availability of cheap, reliable, abundant energy systems for humanity. This is especially true for the elderly and the poor, and for the struggling peoples of the developing world.”
The elderly and the poor in the United Kingdom, Germany and other countries are suffering increased winter deaths due to high energy costs. In the UK, this human disaster is called “Heat or Eat”.
The Excess Winter Mortality Rate in Britain is much higher than that in Canada. Canada has a population of about 35 million and the UK about 65 million, but Excess Winter Mortality in Canada is about 5000 to 10,000 per year, and in the UK it is 25,000 to 50,000 per year.
Canada and the UK have genetically similar populations and similar health care systems. Canada tends to be colder but mostly drier than the UK. However, Canada generally has much lower energy costs and better-insulated housing and probably better central heating systems, on average. This suggests that adaptation to winter and low energy costs are significant drivers of lower Winter Mortality rates.
Imagine IF the UK had competent politicians in the past several decades instead of warmist imbeciles. Instead of spending billions on green energy debacles, they could have spent the funds on improving home insulation and central heating, and encouraged fracking of shales to reduce natural gas prices., and a whole lot of grannies and grandpa’s would still be alive for their grandchildren.
Cheap, abundant, reliable energy is the lifeblood of society – it IS that simple.
When politicians fool with energy systems, real people suffer and die.
Regards, Allan
Reference:
“Cold Weather Kills 20 Times as Many People as Hot Weather”, September 4, 2015
by Joseph D’Aleo and Allan MacRae
https://friendsofsciencecalgary.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/cold-weather-kills-macrae-daleo-4sept2015-final.pdf