Kathryn Porter: The myth of affordable green energy is over

By Paul Homewood

 

 

The pervasive narrative about offshore wind in recent years has been that costs are falling and that wind power is cheap. But scratch below the surface and you find that things are not quite so rosy. Turbine manufacturers have been losing money hand over fist in recent years. Collectively over the past five years the top four turbine producers outside China have lost almost US$ 7 billion – and over US$ 5 billion in 2022 alone. Last year the chief executive of turbine-maker Vestas said that the company lost eight per cent on every turbine sold.

Some of these losses are down to warranty issues – this means the turbines have not performed as expected requiring the manufacturers to compensate windfarm developers and rectify problems. Privately this is attributed to the pressure for ever larger windmills which are harder to get right. Insiders now suggest that the growth in capacity per turbine has peaked, at least for the time being.
But the losses have also been driven by pricing structures designed to win market share, and aggressive windfarm developers who have refused to pay up, often while pocketing billions in subsidies. The market has started to look, if not like a Ponzi scheme, then like a house of cards built on the shakiest of foundations. Turbine producers are all busily re-negotiating contracts and insisting on better terms to stem their losses, otherwise they will simply shift to other, more profitable, activities. This is putting pressure on developers who are now going cap in hand to governments, begging for more subsidies and more tax breaks, all of which must be paid for by tax-payers or bill-payers.

To combat the growing threat from Chinese turbine makers, the EU is considering launching an investigation into China’s use of subsidies to promote the country’s turbine manufacturers. The EU has already imposed tariffs on Chinese glass fibre fabrics, which are used in wind turbine blades. Acting EU competition commissioner Didier Reynders has said that cheap Chinese imports could threaten European businesses. A decision on whether to go ahead with an investigation is expected later this month, despite an angry reaction from Beijing over a similar probe into electric vehicles.
Offshore wind projects have been drying up around the world. During the whole of 2022 there were no offshore wind investments in the EU other than a handful of small floating schemes. Several projects had been expected to reach financial close last year, but final investment decisions were delayed due to inflation, market interventions, and uncertainty about future revenues. Overall, the EU saw only 9 gigawatts worth of new turbine orders in 2022, a 47 percent drop on 2021.

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