A Wind Power Crisis Is Holding Back the World’s Green Energy Goal. – “While solar deployment is accelerating, bottlenecks in the wind industry are jeopardizing the chance to meet a global target to triple renewable capacity by 2030.”

8 comments

1. Trying to square this news with the news yesterday that hedge funds are all net short renewables, except wind, where positions are way more optimistic. Anyone have any insights on this? Are hedgies predicting a sudden removal of roadblocks to wind deployment and/or sudden breakthroughs in profitability?

2. I’m a machinist who has made components for windmills. Let me assure you that the skillset needed to produce the giant gears these things need is not easy to acquire either for an individual or company looking to hire those who already know how.

3. The problem is wind developers want to make wind power, but not deliver it.

4. Good article. The wind industry is ready to go but the lack of projects and bad financing conditions are keeping costs high except for in China where they ensure that demand exists.

   It will take years for the industry to get out of this hole unless governments decide to Kickstart the industry again and actually decide that it is important.

5. Based on my experience with a wind farm a short distance from where I live, it’s very hard to site a good location for wind. Towns and localities have a lot of power to allow or deny projects. The project here was unpopular and the state had to push it hard. Given the difficulty of adding new wind farms it’s hard to see how wind can grow enough to cover a bigger share of the green energy goal.

6. It’s a pretty wierd situation… Back in 2019, Senvion the WTG manufacturer file for bankrupcy, less of a year after it had signed a contract for what was the lowest PPA ever seen in Australia. The low prices made the whole industry think that the only way was up, in terms of installations, size of projects, etc. The fact that PPA prices were below the market average price made it sounds like a no-brainer for any offtaker to buy more and more wind as the equipment prices continued to come down.

   The COVID period meant steel prices skyrocketed, transport prices skyrocketed, and these companies had commitements for installations with prices based on the previous status quo, which was now going to cost them much more than what they planned when they signed the deals.

   Fast-forward to today, and we see GE Vernova and Siemens Wind bleeding money, Vestas just about staying cash-positive, and indicating that they were still pushing for higher margins. It’s odd that in a market with less competition, the main players are still struggling, and that on top of increasing prices.

   Wind power development still sees big challenges: as turbines are gettting bigger, they are visible further afield, increasing the radiu that NIMBYs can complain. They also mean more complications in terms of the components being transported under bridges, blades turning corners in towns and hills along the way. Add to that, the lower-hanging fruit of sites has mostly been taken. In Europe you will struggle to find space between towns that a wind turbine would not be obstructing views of a historic site, or would be too close to houses and have unnaceptable noise impacts. At the same time, the lead-time for Offshore wind is much larger given the complex logistics os shipping massive components to site, Ports also need to be built to accomodate the large ships needed for the maintenance. None of this is simple or fast….

   So there are a lot of good reasons for Wind to be in the current state, but still odd that it finds itself in this situation.

7. Fossil fuel is holding up the targets.

   How obtuse can you be?

8. I’m for wind energy, but there is lots of maintenance compared to solar.

   We should be using wind in motorized funnels like Jacque Cousteau used in his boats before his death. I’m still mystified cruise ships and cargo ships haven’t been using this tech for decades.

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