D’oh! Another offshore wind project goes blade tips up

Yo!

Another one bites the dust.

Vattenfall will stop the development of a major wind project in the UK after a surge in costs.

The Swedish utility said a wind farm planned in the North Sea, which would provide power for 1.5 million UK homes, is no longer viable after costs for the technology soared 40%. https://t.co/vtMeMhg9xc

— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) July 20, 2023

This announcement is an especially bitter blow considering the Brits have basically sold their souls to the wind lobby and climate cult. Foolishly, they’ve put the climate cart before the horse by stripping their reliable fossil fuels, coal and nuclear electricity generation capacity to bare bones on the promise of renewables to come…and what’re ya gonna do now, George?

UK efforts to boost renewable energy have suffered a major setback after one of the country’s biggest offshore wind farm projects was halted due to surging costs.

Vattenfall said on Thursday it had suspended work on its 1.4GW Norfolk Boreas site after a 40 per cent rise in the costs of the project, which the Swedish energy group intended as the first of three UK wind farms with a total investment of about £10bn-£11bn.

…The move is a blow to the UK’s bid to more than triple offshore wind capacity by 2030 — from about 14GW to 50GW — to help decarbonise the country’s electricity system.

Carbon Trust, an independent net zero consultancy, warned it could be the start of a “genuine crisis” for the UK’s offshore wind industry as a whole. “We are at a tipping point; policymakers must take note and swift action to ensure further developers and wind farms do not follow the same path,” it said.

You see that? Policy makers have to save the wind farm developers, not save their citizens from any further, ruinous climate cult driven spending.

All things considered, besides pulling out because it’s too expensive for them, you won’t be surprised to find the wind developers themselves are calling for more subsidies!

GIMME GIMME GIMME

…The project won a contract-for-difference (CfD) in an auction last year, guaranteeing a minimum price of 37.35 pounds per megawatt hour (MWh) in 2012 prices for the electricity produced, which equates to around 45 pounds/MWh today.

Since the auction, called round 4, some developers have warned that soaring project costs, inflation and interest rates have meant the price guarantee offered then could leave the projects uneconomic and called for targeted help for the sector.

Between the three wind farm projects this company had on-tap to build, you were looking at a healthy slice of the U.K.’s future electricity generation.

…The Norfolk Boreas project has a planned capacity that could power around 1.5 million U.K. homes, with the wider Norfolk zone expected to power a total of 4 million homes once complete.

And now they’ve got bupkiss, unless they cave to the Green pressure and wind lobbyist extortion that’s coming. It’s probably not looking like the wisest decision to have shuttered the nuclear plants you had without something reliable in the pipeline already, eh?

“Who could’ve seen this coming?” no one with half a brain asks.

There was more bad news for British offshore wind hopes when my favorite villain – Danish wind developer Ørsted – put a tentative paw in the air and said, “Well. Since we’re asking if anyone is having problems…”

…The news comes after Danish firm Orsted warned that it may be forced to review its Hornsea 3 North Sea offshore wind project – which is expected to power three million UK homes – unless it can secure support to help address rising costs.

See the grifters starting to fall in line here? They’d hate to be forced to “review” the project they bid and contracted for, but by Thor’s hammer will if they don’t “secure” (read: gov money) to address costs they made no allowance for when they bargain basemented their bids to win the contract.

In the old days of developing and government contracts, it would be “too bad, so sad.” You either built it, or the developer lost the contract and his shirt getting hit with big fines for the default.

Kind of like how another U.S. wind farm project that’s circling the drain is playing out. I’ve followed several of these New England Green dreams as they head towards collapsing, and there’s news on one of them as of yesterday.

Avangrid to pay $49m to cancel deal for 1.2GW Massachusetts offshore wind project

Iberdrola-controlled Avangrid has agreed to pay $48.9m in fines to the US state of Massachusetts to terminate its contracted 1.2GW Commonwealth Wind project which it claims is no longer financially viable.

Avangrid won the project in the state’s third round in December 2021 and in April last year signed offtake contracts with the state’s major utilities Eversource, National Grid, and Fitchburg Electric & Gas averaging $72/MWh, a new low for the US industry.

Surging inflation and interest rates have since buffeted the industry, pushing the developer to request its power purchase agreements (PPAs) “be terminated because the facility is no longer financeable”, according to the agreement filed by the state Department of Public Utilities (DPU).

Before Bidenomics kicked in with a vengeance…

Bidenomics: another way of saying restoring the American dream.

— President Biden (@POTUS) July 20, 2023

…these developers, between cheap rates and government handouts, were cleaning up.

Now?

Not so much and they are in no position to be nimble enough to survive it for what they bid them out.

Personally?

Wind can call a waahmbulance.