Ørsted, a major player in the offshore wind development sector, has decided to pull the plug on its Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2 projects off the coast of New Jersey. Citing “escalated financial difficulties and supply chain issues”.
Ørsted’s decision brings to light the tumultuous waters that renewable energy projects are now starting to regularly encounter.
The mainstream media complains incessantly about problems with abandoned oil wells. Who’s going to clean up abandoned windmills?
At least in the ocean, once nature brings them down, maybe they’ll become reef-type structures like ship wrecks where fish can shit & copulate.
The worst thing is that after all this wind power fails, there will be these monstrosities littering the land and the ocean for decades if not centuries.
Yep – wind turbine blades have the same half-life as spent uranium.b
“…..but it’s the right thing to do” is what all of these windmill apologists always say, coupled with “95% of all scientists agree.” We’re doomed until rational, common sense returns to the forefront.
Saner voices tried to tell them for years that wind power was the most expensive, least reliable and least efficient method of electrical generation going….they refused to listen. We even explained why, and in great detail. Didn’t matter.
This is an interesting story that is a bit more nefarious than it looks on the surface. Orsted got a tax credit from the State of New Jersey valued up near $1Billion. Part of the deal was that Orsted would return that benefit back to their customers over time via rate reductions. However, they recently asked that NJ forgive that return because they came to realize that the entire project was unattainable unless it was heavily subsidized by government. Orsted claims to have lost $4 Billion on the project due to a dive of stock when the project failed.
Regardless what you think about “renewable energy,” the fact remains that the initial loan would only be paid back to those customers of Orsted’s project (yet, every resident of NJ had their tax dollars passed onto Orsted). That, in itself, is immoral IMO. Then, Orsed decided…nah, we’re not going to give anything back. Even worse. Then, they state for the record that the project is only feasible if someone else (tax payers) foot the bill.
I’ll bet certain parties made out pretty well on this project. Anyone remember Solyndra?
While I could always see that there are niche applications for the “renewable” energy sources like wind and solar, I could never see a good argument that grid-scale projects would ever have sufficient return on investment to make the projects viable. Of course, the expert bean-counters behind these projects had great lobbiests, and were able to ensure government subsidies that pushed those projects into the black, at least over the short term, and ensured that high level management would be able to enrich themselves and bail out before reality hit, and bankruptcy ensued.
But, ocean-based wind projects? Anyone who knows anything about working in offshore or even near-shore marine environments could (and usually did) predict that the economics of such a venture were simply doomed, and even with massive subsidies would likely fail before the project was ever fully completed. Sure, the wind does blow more over the ocean, but with that you end up with more time that there is simply too much wind and the turbines cannot be employed. My guess, without looking up the numbers, is that an ocean-based wind farm might out-produce a land based project by perhaps 20% at the most. Unfortunately, there is also the extra cost of construction and maintenance, and for that, you need to consider the costs of land-based projects, and give it a boost of at least one order of magnitude. The ocean is a very difficult working environment at the best of times, and all too often becomes brutal and unforgiving.
Of course, the bean-counters knew all these problems from the beginning, but with careful “investment” into key politicians and bureaucrats, they were able to get even the most unlikely and unprofitable projects launched. And just like the land-based projects, they have lined their own pockets with the collected spoils of government subsidies and mandates. They will walk away rich, and never suffer any consequence for the fraud they have committed. And the taxpayers, after paying for projects guaranteed to fail, will also be stuck with the bill for demolition and disposal of useless and likely heavily damaged (therefore unsalvageable) equipment.
Tilting @ Windmills
Win. Would have totally screwed up the Cape May coast.
After these green libtard fantasies one by one collapse when investors bail out and reality sets in, all we’ll be left with is wood stoves, coal, oil, natural gas, hydro, nukes and unicorn farts.
As someone who’s been going to the Jersey shore all my life (was just in Avalon a couple weeks back), I have to say this news made my week.
The larger message is this – with wins like this – even with all the depressing news of late – I think It’s pretty clear that not everything is doom and gloom, and that there is hope for the future! Keep fighting everybody! The tide is turning!
I will say it again, you cannot make any of that crap without fossil fuels.