Disaster
Screencap EnergyWatch
Posted on 02/05/2023 8:39:54 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Sometimes it’s funny how coming across an article will make you smile because of a memory triggered by some aspect of it. That happened yesterday, and again today, when I came across these pieces on the chaos in the wind turbine manufacturing sector.
My Daddy, after being summarily booted from the Marine Corps in their post-Korean War downsizing, went on to fly for Eastern Air Lines for 30-plus years. He was the loveliest person, a natural in the cockpit (soloing in an Indiana cornfield at the age of 12), and dearly loved truly awful puns. “Wind turbines” reminded me of one of his most excruciating funnies and the first time he sprung it on us:
Daddy: There was a horrible accident at work – a stewardess backed into a turning propeller!
Family: OMG! How is she?!
Daddy: DISASTER
*laughs uproariously*
GROAN Still cracks me up.
Absolutely apropos for the situation spinning in the turbine industry, only they didn’t back into it by mistake – they ran into it full tilt, with their corporate hands out. Now the entire industry is hitting headwinds they hadn’t counted on and it could spell disaster.
The European wind industry has warned of continued difficulties in 2023 as high materials costs and slow approvals for new wind power projects drag back profitability, despite rising demand for renewable energy.
…The effects of the Russian war on Ukraine drove up prices for energy and important raw materials such as steel last year, creating a perfect storm for the European wind sector.
Despite escalating demand from governments and customers for renewable energy as a result of the energy crisis, the slow EU and UK approval processes have created a backlog of projects and delayed new turbine orders.
German manufacturer Siemens Gamesa, one of the premier turbine providers in the renewables game, reported an almost billion-dollar loss for the Oct-Dec quarter of last year! So guess what they want?
Global green energy company Siemens Gamesa reported Thursday that it had lost a staggering $967 million during the three-month period from between October to December.
The Germany-based company, which dubs itself as “the global leader in offshore power generation,” noted the wind industry has faced various unfavorable pressures leading to negative growth in recent months and years, in its earnings report for the first quarter of fiscal year 2023 released Thursday morning. The company added that governments would need to further assist the industry to ensure future positive growth.
If you guessed “a bailout,” you’re right!
What isn’t in that report was another season for the disastrous returns – they make a crappy product? Their loss doubled because of warranty claim payouts.
Beleaguered wind turbine maker Siemens Gamesa (SGREN.MC), soon to be delisted and folded into parent Siemens Energy (ENR1n.DE), said on Thursday its first-quarter net loss more than doubled on higher warranty provisions as a result of faulty components.
…The company last month flagged increased failure rates of unspecified components of its installed onshore and offshore wind turbines, triggering higher warranty provisions that have also plagued Danish rival Vestas (VWS.CO).
“The negative development in our service business underscores that we have much work ahead of us to stabilize our business and return to profitability,” said Siemens Gamesa Chief Executive Jochen Eickholt, who joined from Siemens Energy last year.
It sounds like the Danish company Vestas isn’t exactly a sterling production model either. Their warranty claims exceeded their revenue target (am I reading that right?)?
Disaster
Screencap EnergyWatch
Don’t you find it odd that they are having demonstrably terrible problems with faulty products and hardly a peep about any of it in the mainstream cheering for wind? There seems to be a concerted effort to hide the reliability of these products from the get-go in the hype and renewable raptures.
You (say, Siemens, for example) get a reputation for overpriced junk – no matter how subsidized it is, your order sheets will start reflecting your reputation.
Oh. Hello.
Apologies — typo above. It should read (€ per MW)
— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) February 2, 2023
And an order backlog like this – not a single order for the first quarter of ’23 – isn’t going to pay the bills.
Disaster.
Here in the U.S., General Electric was humming along in its financials except…*sad trombone*…when it got to their turbine business. Ooo, they took a hit, too. Really fugly numbers.
…The company’s renewable energy business has been facing challenges due to inflation and supply chain pressures. The unit reported a loss of $2.2 billion in 2022.
GE is reducing global headcount at the onshore wind unit by about 20% as part of a plan to restructure and resize the business.
What a surprise. Look who GE is counting on to save the windy day! Tax credit bailout.
…Culp said the onshore business is expected to get a boost following the restoration of the tax credit for wind projects.
It’s not just manufacturing, although their woes are feeding into these problems. Offshore wind projects that were touted as saving the world just a few months ago are on shaky pedestals. The company that is fighting off accusations of whale killing for the prep work going on off the New Jersey coast has just taken a massive write-off on a project underway in the waters off New York state.
…Denmark’s Orsted (ORSTED.CO), the world’s No. 1 offshore wind farm developer, late on Thursday announced a writedown on a large U.S. offshore wind project and an earnings forecast for 2023 that fell short of analyst estimates.
…Orsted shares tumbled by more than 7% on Friday after it announced a 2.5 billion Danish crown ($366 million) writedown on its Sunrise Wind project off the coast of New York, citing changes to its earnings projections.
It said earnings at the prices it had agreed for the project – due to become fully operational in 2025 – will be squeezed by significant inflationary pressures and higher interest rates now faced across the sector.
In an interesting turn of events in New Hampshire, a company contracted with the state for an offshore wind farm is embroiled in a major tussle with the state’s department of utilities. Avangrid has told the state they can’t afford to move forward, so “we’re not building it anymore.”
The developer behind the largest single offshore wind farm in the state’s pipeline on Thursday filed a formal notice of appeal to contest the Department of Public Utilities’ approval of contracts that the developer agreed to but says will no longer allow its project to be financed or built.
The DPU last month determined that the contracts, which the wind developers and utility companies agreed to in May, “are in the public interest” and approved them over the developer’s objections. Commonwealth Wind parent company Avangrid has said for months that increases in commodity prices, rising interest rates and supply shortages mean that its 1,200 megawatt renewable energy project “cannot be financed and built” under the terms of those power purchase agreements (PPAs).
Good luck working around all that.
Sounds like they need a bailout! But, why should we?
"[Siemens] needs to further fleece taxpayers globally to stay profitable."@SteveGruberShow reports on a story proving that green energy from wind turbines is not profitable.
Watch #SteveGruberShow LIVE, weekdays at 6am ET ➡️ https://t.co/AOtHV4zjmr pic.twitter.com/VIHn9v1GiK
— Real America's Voice (RAV) (@RealAmVoice) February 3, 2023
Renewables have had plenty of time and bazillions of tax dollars already to stand on their own. We are all dealing the same inflationary pressures and Ukraine, etc – they aren’t suffering any industry peculiar hardships other than the fraud the “Green” industry is founded on.
Time to kick those tax training wheels out from under these bad boys and see how they twirl.
Do they spin happily into the sunset or…like I’m bettin’…does it fall to Earth in a flaming disaster?
Keep an umbrella handy.
I drove down the Columbia River Gorge on Saturday on the north side of the gorge on WA-14. There were hundreds of wind turbines on the Oregon side of the river and NOT ONE was turning. The weird thing is the turbines on the north side of the river (the Washington side) WERE turning, albeit rather slowly.
There will be no money to remove them.
I've been making that point for a few years. When any surface mine is opened, the owners have to post a reclamation bond to ensure that the site will be restored to its original condition when mining ends. There are NO such bonds for "wind farms." As you say, the land will be covered with millions of these monstrosities, dead blades dangling down. That will happen in the next 20 to 40 years, too -- not that far away.
I predict that there will be a "Superfund III" down the road to spend trillions of tax dollars removing these things.
Many 100 foot wide roads have to be built
= = =
Are the Maine citizens allowed to drive on those roads, like for exploring or sight seeing or hunting?
There are NO such bonds for “wind farms.”
to a depth of 10 inches if I remember the contract right.
not same as posted bond.
My wife notes that clearing that forest in Maine is kind of like clearing the Amazon.
Lots of good those contracts will do when the companies declare Chapter 7 Bankruptcy – Liquidation Under the Bankruptcy Code. Nobody will assume those liabilities and they won’t have any assets. The federal government won’t prevent them from using Chapter 7.
Taxpayers will be on the hook and it will take decades to remove them.
It’s amazing that the same people who went apoplectic over a few oil rigs in the Santa Barbara Channel ruining the view are happy with millions of these monstrosities ruining all the vistas across America. I am glad I was born before that a happened and got to travel all across the land.
“sound produced by an air gun (222.6 dB which is 10% louder than the noise produced by pile-driving)”
222.6 dB vs 200.0 dB is not “10% louder” in a physical sense. (And as far as a perceptual sense goes, they can both deafen you.)
Difference is 22.6 dB or 2.26 B. That means the *power* of the sound is 10**2.26 or over 14 times as much (14.45+).
An article that sounds scientific should realize that dB is logarithmic in the power ratio.
In the Columbia Gorge those calm air periods are more the exception than the rule, and you generally see them only in the winter between fronts. In the summer the wind is needed for windsurfing! :).
I use to drive to Portland frequently (not any more) and would cuss out the headwind as it would steal gas mileage. But coming home was great — 50 mpg once in a V8 Camaro. Occasionally, high pressure on the east side of the Cascades will reverse the wind direction.
In the Tri-Cities we have the one remaining PNW nuclear power plant so we get by. And the hydroelectric turbines are close enough you can almost hear them.
Agree with the rest of your comment.
You fire an air gun a few times, then you stop. Wind mills churn 24/7/365. The dBs never cease. So it does not matter about the accuracy - marine life either dies or leaves the area.
Take up the accuracy with the authors not me. I have no way of knowing who is right or wrong, but when in doubt, I’ll take the author’s words over some anonymous poster.
I drive the gorge two to four times a year. But, to my eye, those slack periods seem to be the rule rather than the norm.
My dad was the Program Manager at General Electric for the first big multi-megawatt wind turbines. His team installed the first prototype units at the San Gorgonio Pass in CA, in Hawaii, and in Goldendale, Washington. I was in the fossil fuel power industry in those years and kept telling him those wind turbines were never going to succeed commercially. We used to have fun jousting about wind vs fossil way back around 1980!
No, I don’t think too many people would agree with you that the Columbia Gorge isn’t windy. It is the freshwater wind surfing and kite board capital of the world! I lost a 50’ spruce to those winds in November, and a friend lost a tied-down C-182 in about 2000.
The overall all-year average wind speed is 10 mph, but that is taken from points all through the gorge, not at the high wind locations where the turbines are sited.
The wind surfers know the situation best:
“The Columbia River Gorge offers a full range of riding conditions and wind speeds typically from 10-25mph however, some days it can blow strong 25-35+mph. The predominate riding conditions during the summer months of May to September are westerly winds, opposite of the Columbia River current.”
Yep, I remember those early turbines near Goldendale. My dad was involved in the war effort; was relocated from Los Alamos to Hanford in 1943, I think it was.
My uncle (dad’s brother) worked at Los Alamos for quite a while before becoming a medical doctor and landing at Twin Falls, ID.
Have you visited Los Alamos? Interesting museum... Also, the huge, shallow, ancient volcanic crater/caldera (Jemez), and the forest....
DIS-ASSED-HER
that blows...
“Are the Maine citizens allowed to drive on those roads, like for exploring or sight seeing or hunting?”
___________________________________________________________
Most of Maine is wilderness.
On those 100 foot wide access roads, there is nothing to see but trees and ugly windmills. No sights to see.
One can see all the trees he wants just driving along the Maine Turnpike.
I don’t know if those roads are posted. If not, people will use them for hunting and no one will stop them.
Most of the summer tourists stay close to the coast.
The Maine lobstermen have squawked loudly about putting those windmills offshore, fearing a Nor’Easter could send the blades crashing to the ocean floor where the lobster live. So far, they have blocked huge numbers of them from being built.
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