Wind power giant says a mistake to say renewables would get cheaper
For years they told us that the green transition would deliver cheap energy, and that if we just subsidized them enough, prices would keep falling.
The promise of free energy on the horizon led whole nations (stupidly) to believe that closing coal plants was viable.
But now that damage is done, suddenly the Vestas chief admits that telling people that wind can only get cheaper “was a mistake”.
There is carnage in Europe. Orders and profits are collapsing. The largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world has already raised prices by more than 30 percent this year but despite that, expects its profit margins to shrink to “minus five percent”.
Lucky their orders are down since they are losing money on every turbine.
The fall in sales landed as inflation bites, supply lines are squeezed and their costs are rising. (After all, wind turbine factories can’t run off wind turbines, they’re paying for expensive electricity too).
So suddenly Vestas need to raise their prices even more, and their CEO is hoping a belated apology will somehow bring their market back.
Bloomberg: Manufacturers such as Vestas Wind Systems A/S are seeing losses pile up as orders collapse at a time when they should be capitalizing on the turmoil in natural-gas markets.
To blame — at least in part — is the industry’s insistence that clean electricity can only get cheaper, according to Henrik Andersen, chief executive officer of the Danish wind giant.
“It made some people make the wrong assumption that energy and electricity should become free,” Andersen said in an interview in London. “We created the perception to some extent. So we are to blame for it. That was a mistake.”
How pathetic the truth is — that it takes a war to pump up fossil fuel prices to the point where “wind is competitive”.
To be sure, wind power remains competitive with other energy after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drove up prices for fossil fuels.
But government auctions for new wind farms put pressure on companies to keep prices low, while costly and lengthy processes to gain planning permission continue to inhibit growth.
Shucks. The industry that lives off Big Government suffers some red tape. Cry me a river.
The same corrupt bureaucracy that created the wind industry in the first place will mismanage them right off to China.
It’s a “transition” the solar industry has already suffered, and the wind industry has been fearing for months.
See more here joannenova.com
Please Donate Below To Support Our Ongoing Work To Defend The Scientific Method
PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company 
incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX.
Trackback from your site.
Tom
| #
No matter how you measure it, green energy is much more expensive per unit of input to get a unit of output.
Reply
Howdy
| #
One can formulate a response without reading the body text, simply from the heading. It was never a mistake, but simply a ruse to garner acceptance.
Surely the ‘wind power giant’ knew all along, since how could lack of such knowledge lead one to be a giant?
Reply
VOWG
| #
They are not “renewable” period, end of story. They cannot be built without coal, oil and gas. How foolish do people have to be to believe this nonsense. Oh, right, I forgot, “covid”, masks, lockdowns, vaxxes, right, people are very stupid.
Reply
Itsme
| #
let’s not forget the waste mountains of old turbines and solar panels on top.
Reply
James
| #
We’re not interested in the cost of nergy. We’re interested in the PRICE. And as seen, prices increase with reduced availability. The cost at source is zero, but when made available at user site, far from zero.
Reply
James
| #
And what politicians have done is limit availability. Was this to put money in their own pockets, or favor foreign exporters over domestic suppliers, or favor friends such as dear Vladimir? It certainly wasn’t done to favor their own users, so must be considered High Treason against the Sovereign people.
Reply
John Doran
| #
The wind solar ‘industrys’ & the reactions to Putin’s invasion in self defense of Ukraine, are symbols of the stupidity, corruption & incompetence of our politicians. They are mostly bought or bribed.
If anyone doubts my Ukraine position, read theduran.com
JD.
Reply