Siemens Cancel Virginia Wind Blade Factory
By Paul Homewood
h/t idau
From Virginia Business:
Amid failing turbine components and financial challenges, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy said Friday it has “discontinued” its plans to build the nation’s first offshore wind-turbine blade manufacturing facility at the Port of Virginia’s Portsmouth Marine Terminal.
“Siemens Gamesa will continue to meet our obligations for the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. Siemens Gamesa discontinued plans to build and operate an offshore blade facility in Virginia, as development milestones to establish the facility could not be met,” a spokesperson for the Spanish-German wind turbine company said in a statement.
The $200 million project, first announced in October 2021, was expected to create 310 jobs in Portsmouth — and also was viewed as a major step toward creating a U.S. offshore wind manufacturing hub in Hampton Roads. The factory was set to support Dominion Energy’s $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, and Siemens Gamesa had leased 80 acres at the port’s Portsmouth terminal next to 72 acres leased by Dominion for staging and preassembly of the foundations and turbines for the wind farm.
https://www.virginiabusiness.com/article/siemens-gamesa-cancels-200m-wind-blade-factory/
Forget about all the fancy words. The simple reality is that Siemens could not supply blades at the ultra low prices needed by wind farms to be competitive.
Either the blades will come from China, or the offshore wind farms won’t be built at all.
Meanwhile Siemens have made it clear they are not prepared to throw good money after bad anymore.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Sorry to be OT right off the bat but I think that it is important that we are aware that the climate issue is being discussed by blogs that are mostly about discussing more general stuff.
https://www.samizdata.net/2023/11/climate-fatigue/
Stonyground.
Concern about climate change shrinks globally as threat grows, survey shows
Fewer than half of those questioned in global poll believe climate change poses a ‘very serious threat’
Concerns about climate change shrank across the world last year, with fewer than half of those questioned in a new survey believing it posed a “very serious threat” to their countries over the next 20 years.
Only 20% of people in China, the world’s biggest polluter, said they believed that climate change was a very serious threat, down 3 percentage points from the last survey by Gallup World Risk Poll in 2019.
Globally, the figure fell by 1.5 percentage points to 48.7% in 2021. The survey was based on more than 125,000 interviews in 121 countries.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/19/concern-about-climate-change-shrinks-globally-as-threat-grows-survey-shows
“Only 20% of people in China, the world’s biggest polluter, said they believed that climate change was a very serious threat, ”
Even 20% is surprising, given they have surely not been bombarded for years by their media trying to persuade them the end is nigh etc. and they can see with their own eyes how “seriously” their leaders believe these claims.
As one technology fails – as it was predicted it would (but politicians, able to make fortunes from it, ignored), when on a losing hand, double down. Hence, a piece I read today on the web (REF since lost) about a new design of multiple vertical 30 metre blaces assembled in a ring high above the ground, will be three times more productive than ordinary mills. Of course….we’ll wait 20 years while they prove that wind is fickle, yet again. Sheesh!!
No Blades, eh? Huh the job will only be 1/2 done then – How will that work? We know how to finish off a field on a Saturday night when the mower breaks down 1/2 way through: Chuck a Bottlawhisky at it. I wonder would that work there? Olaf & co back home must have been on the Schnapps at some stage according to OldBrews’ report. ( I seem to have missed that on Satellite TV.
‘as development milestones to establish the facility could not be met’
Word salad. What are they hiding?
I’d guess couldn’t get a big enough tax break.
‘Bigger is better’ doesn’t always go to plan…
Siemens Energy books $2.4 billion in charges on wind turbines
August 7, 2023
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/siemens-energy-books-24-bln-charges-wind-turbine-issues-2023-08-07/
Not economically viable for a company already haemorrhageing cash in a big way.
Too many cancelled projects on the US East coast. The market is not looking strong. The Virginia project seems to be continuing only because the State has legislated to acquire 5.2GW of Offshore wind, apparently without regard to cost. Meanwhile their senators lobby for bigger subsidies in Congress.
Last 2 weeks Siemens Energy stock fell from €12 to €7 now back to €9
it was once €33 and this year was €24
And that is the problem with Net Zero … the more Net Zero you have, the more it costs to produce things for Net Zero. The only way to have “Net Zero”, is to buy in everything from countries who aren’t doing Net Zero, making it Net stupidity.