The renewable green energy disaster off the northeastern US is getting worse
By Paul Homewood
h/t Paul Kolk
A slow-motion collapse in the offshore wind industry continues to grow as sticky inflation and supply chain challenges force developers to delay or cancel major projects. In particular, progress towards the Biden administration’s goal of building large amounts of floating wind off the northeastern US coast is just about stalled.
Shell, which invested in a series of offshore wind projects in recent years, including offshore the northeastern United States, announced last week it would lay off much of its offshore wind business staff as the oil giant advances its program of refocusing on its core oil and gas business.
“We are concentrating on select markets and segments to deliver the most value for our investors and customers,” a Shell spokesperson told Bloomberg. “Shell is looking at how it can continue to compete for offshore wind projects in priority markets while maintaining our focus on performance, discipline and simplification.”
Wind turbine maker Siemens Gamesa announced even bigger layoffs, saying it would cut 15 per cent of its global staff to adjust to a slowing market. The announcement comes after the company reported a €4.6 billion loss for 2023, a losing trend that has continued over the first half of 2024…..
In light of the industry’s gloomy outlook, Westwood notes that “calls are ringing out for governments to provide more specific policy and regulatory support for technology development in addition to cost reduction and investment in port infrastructure to accelerate adoption.”
This is completely predictable, since the voracious rent-seeking wind business invariably calls for more government largesse in response to any challenge that arises. Unfortunately, the call is too often answered by policymakers who have made big political bets on being able to show off arrays of mammoth windmills floating atop various oceans and seas, intermittently producing some electricity – generally 25-30 per cent of nominal plant capacity over time.
This latest bad news for offshore wind could become especially troublesome for US President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, since he has invested so much of his personal political capital in pushing a major buildout of floating offshore wind in the Atlantic northeast. A 2023 Department of Energy fact sheet sets the administration’s goal of installing 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 for the US alone, exceeding Westwood’s just estimated potential for global new capacity by that year by a factor of 10 times over.
To date, regulators under Biden have approved permits for 6 major offshore projects, several of which have already been delayed or cancelled by developers in response to tougher economic factors. In late 2023, major Danish wind developer Orsted cancelled two projects off the Atlantic coast, and Shell divested its 50 per cent stake in another in March of this year. Equinor and BP announced in January they were cancelling plans for their Empire Wind 2 project, citing similar economic concerns.
One US offshore project, Vineyard Wind 1, was able to begin delivering its intermittent 25-30 per cent of 68 megawatts (MW) to Massachusetts residents in January with the activation of 5 offshore turbines. The South Fork Wind Project was also able to commence first deliveries into New York in March, with 12 turbines capable of generating some proportion of 130 MW.
But this is less than one per cent of the Biden goal of 30 GW, with just five and a half years remaining until 2030. Given the wind industry’s insatiable appetite for ever-increasing subsidies and constantly rising utility charges, it’s an open question how many more billions of dollars the federal government will be allowed to print to keep projects alive before the voters start to rebel at the cost.
It’s a rebellion that could commence as soon as this coming November.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/03/renewable-energy-green-offshore-wind-disaster-biden/
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
And last night Herr Starmer stated that “renewable energy in the short term and long term will reduce prices to UK consumers”. They never stop lying.
There must be a way to buy, install and connect wind turbines and solar panels for peanuts. Can he tell us what it is?
And provide Backup for peanuts too.
No, no there isn’t – you’re more likely to build a Penrose Triangle than get cheap renewables
Last week, at the GB Energy launch in Scotland, he proposed we get our energy from floating offshore wind which is £242/MWhr at the next renewables auction, AR6.
And Sushi can’t score this open goal because his Blue Labour party are promising the same stupidity but at a slightly slower rate.
He’s not lying, he’s just regurgitating what his incompetent £100k a year SPADs & activist chums are telling him as they peddle their Marxist ideologies – he’s absolutely no grasp of energy or power generation, like 99% of politicians and is hostage to TikTok warriors
When is a lie not a lie? You suggest he is not lying because he believes it. Nevertheless what he is saying is untrue, hence a lie.
Correct, but he, like the rest, do not take the time to look for the truth, especially when their WEF mothership is high on the AGW hoax too
Our local Conservative M.P. went around, three or four years ago, telling everyone who would listen, that the U.K. would become the Saudi Arabia of wind. He absolutely believed it, simply because he had been told by Johnson that “the experts on the climate” had planned it as our way of avoiding the cost of net-zero. He, like-wise, absolutely believed that masks and lockdowns and forced* vaccinations would stop Covid, because “the medical experts” said it would . He is not unintelligent and not particularly mendacious. He simply is mentally lazy and likes having marginally plausible stories to tell himself and his constituents. Of course he has an Arts degree. He is standing down.
*Effectively. I have not forgotten “vaccine passports” and babies forced to struggle to breathe through their face nappies, even though almost everybody else seems to have.
Sounds like my Tory MP, for whom no amount of rational explanation of the stupidity (lack of evidence) for both net zero and the govt’s covid response, would break him out of these mindsets, and now refuses to respond.
Unfortunately things are moving right along. Dominion is driving piles (they call it steel in the water) for its monster 2,600 MW project. Revolution is too up north. New York just contracted with two others including Empire 1. And Vineyard 1 is 800 MW. There are 28 big projects in the queue and most are moving forward. The 30,000 MW by 2030 is indeed dead but considering they had a surprise 65% price spike they are doing very well, alas. No idea what floating wind he is talking about. There is a 15,000 MW target for Maine but no leases have been sold yet so that is 10-20 years away.
But Trump says he will kill offshore wind. That has to chill/kill financing until the election. Interesting times may lie ahead. Here’s hoping.
Aside: I don’t think they drive piles anymore. Better technology now.
They drive enormous monopiles, one per tower. Around 30 foot diameter with 5″ steel walls and several hundred feet long, weighing around 2,000 tons each. Search on XXL monopile. The Orion driving Dominion’s is 700 feet long with a crane capacity of 5,000 tons. The driving force is enormous so so is the noise. The federally authorized acoustic harassment is almost 80,000 marine mammals.
Suction buckets are a much quieter alternative but so far no one uses them. We have called for them but we are ignored.
David
I live in a mid-Atlantic state with a liberal democratic administration. Fortunately the states around us still burn coal and natural gas which the region has in abundance. The closer you get to New York and New England however, they’ve blocked NG pipelines and shut down nuclear while embracing rapid net zero adoption. Something will have to give in their grandiose plans because the power generation won’t be there.
Can you remember when the sane, empirical science advocating types used to run critical infrastructure, based on consumer benefit and societal development? Me too, oh how I wish those days would return!
Can you remember when elected officials felt they had to answer to the electorate? Or when government workers felt the need to serve citizens rather than hold them in contempt, seeking ways to manipulate every decision people make? Now elected and civil service employees seem more concerned about satisfying the needs of lobbyists, NGO’s and their own self-interest while citizens are expected to foot the bill and feel grateful for the opportunity to do so.
At least the oil and gas industry is grounded in science and sound fiscal reasoning where as the Global Taxpayer heist behind pointless wind has neither.
Maybe the likely win for Drill baby, drill Trump is dampening enthusiasm.
And in Europe
Poland’s 57% de-rating factor for BESS would be ‘lethal blow’ to market.
https://www.energy-storage.news/polands-57-de-rating-factor-for-bess-would-be-lethal-blow-to-market/
To be fair, 57% is quite optimistic
Good, let it all fall over and collapse like a house of cards – reality will win
It might collapse, but there is a big problem.
The original decision was to get rid of fossil fuels. Some asked, “How will we get power?”
“You can use windmills!”
The decision was not to install windmills, it was to get rid of fossil fuels. So, as they learn windmills won’t actually work, they are not likely to let go of their original decision . . . you still have to get rid of fossil fuels. You may actually be worse off. A Labour government is bound to stick with banning fossil fuels.
“No replacement? Too bad.”
No, even ‘denser than a black hole’ Starmer will see that rolling power blackouts affect the self proclaimed elites like him, just as much as the poor working class proles – electrons don’t differentiate between rich & poor – when renewable generation fails, it fails for all – fortunately for the rich globalist elites, they will have a fleet of diesel / gas generators on standby in their mansions, they’ll hardly notice the blip!
energywise : They may have generators for their electricity but they’ll find all their services cease.
correct John, they seem to think regressing the proles living standards will have net zero affect on their own – oh how wrong they will be