Hey, lets all go greed, er, green!

Well, global recession causing governments around the world to enact 'austerity' measures and reduce renewable energy subsidies does tend to cut into the business opportunities for wind turbine manufacturers.

I bet those responsible for this (new window) are among those getting the boot.

Maybe they should have gotten a sweetheart loan like Fartbongos buddies at Solyndra. Hell, those that are still there are getting bonuses and the entire company is bankrupt.

NuttierThanEver: I wonder if the Koch Brother's funded smear job "research" on the dangers of wind energy had anything to do with this as well. We have wind developers trying to establish some turbines here in Southern Michigan and so far the NIMBY folks in two communties have voted them out mostly by a few folks using scare tactics about "flicker effect" and noise pollution. My favorite part is that this community is very conservative but suddenly the same people who biatch about Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and EPA are all very concerned that the turbines might hurt a threatened species of bat that is occasionally seen in the area.

The entire industry is propped up by government subsidies which are being cut because governments don't have any more money, either. This is just market correction.

Lsherm: NuttierThanEver: I wonder if the Koch Brother's funded smear job "research" on the dangers of wind energy had anything to do with this as well. We have wind developers trying to establish some turbines here in Southern Michigan and so far the NIMBY folks in two communties have voted them out mostly by a few folks using scare tactics about "flicker effect" and noise pollution. My favorite part is that this community is very conservative but suddenly the same people who biatch about Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and EPA are all very concerned that the turbines might hurt a threatened species of bat that is occasionally seen in the area.

The entire industry is propped up by government subsidies which are being cut because governments don't have any more money, either. This is just market correction.

That and, as stated in the article, there is fierce competition from other hungry manufacturers.

Lsherm: NuttierThanEver: I wonder if the Koch Brother's funded smear job "research" on the dangers of wind energy had anything to do with this as well. We have wind developers trying to establish some turbines here in Southern Michigan and so far the NIMBY folks in two communties have voted them out mostly by a few folks using scare tactics about "flicker effect" and noise pollution. My favorite part is that this community is very conservative but suddenly the same people who biatch about Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and EPA are all very concerned that the turbines might hurt a threatened species of bat that is occasionally seen in the area.

The entire industry is propped up by government subsidies which are being cut because governments don't have any more money, either. This is just market correction.

'The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples money.' - M Thatcher

We could solve the unemployment problem with a little Soylent Green. And "beef" stew.

NuttierThanEver: Lsherm: NuttierThanEver: I wonder if the Koch Brother's funded smear job "research" on the dangers of wind energy had anything to do with this as well. We have wind developers trying to establish some turbines here in Southern Michigan and so far the NIMBY folks in two communties have voted them out mostly by a few folks using scare tactics about "flicker effect" and noise pollution. My favorite part is that this community is very conservative but suddenly the same people who biatch about Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and EPA are all very concerned that the turbines might hurt a threatened species of bat that is occasionally seen in the area.

The entire industry is propped up by government subsidies which are being cut because governments don't have any more money, either. This is just market correction.

As are oil, coal and nuclear. The only difference is the wind lobby is a hell of a lot weaker than the fossil fuel lobby.

You're not too bright, are you?

Emerging industries involve many startups, most of which are likely to fail.

Water is wet.

I read that as Vespa, so I'll post this picture anyways.

YixilTesiphon: Emerging industries involve many startups, most of which are likely to fail.

Water is wet.


Vestas is hardly a startup any longer.

Wind energy is a colossal waste of money. It's better that these people be unemployed then continue to drain money from productive members of society.

If 'alternative energy' were viable, it wouldn't be the alternative.

Fun wind fact I learned yesterday, as I'm currently at a renewable energy conference in Hawaii. An 8 turbine installation (~30MW) going up in Maui this year will cover some 20% of the island's electricity needs. They'll be paired with a dozen semi-trailer sized A123 batteries to regulate and level off output. The site has one of the highest wind capacity factors in the world, at 55%. Due to 90% of Hawaii's electricity being provided by burning expensive oil, this is going to be a very profitable project; even though they'll be curtailing output every night, since the island's demand drops from 200MW to 70MW, and the oil power boilers/turbines are left nearly idle.

/20% of this big island's power comes from geo-thermal.
//will be 40% by 2015.

NuttierThanEver: As are oil, coal and nuclear. The only difference is the wind lobby is a hell of a lot weaker than the fossil fuel lobby.

They all get subsidies, but only Wind is actually requiring subsidies to be profitable at this point, at least in the US. Nuclear is on the way out, since no new plants have been built since 1973, oil can survive no matter what the price, and for that matter so can coal. Coal and oil only gets hurt by higher prices through the rate it's extracted. When the price goes up - less extraction takes place. It's still a profitable industry, but more importantly it gets more profitable the more scarce it becomes.

Wind power so far is only profitable with subsidies. That's not a good business plan. People aren't going to pay more for wind power the more scare it becomes.

monty666: . If they can make storage practical it will go a long way toward making wind energy a bigger part of their generation portfolio, as the intermittent nature of wind means 20% is the upper limit right now, and that it is in Europe which is miles ahead of us in North America.

Curious what you mean by 20%, do you mean total capacity of the grid? Or actual real-time consumption numbers.

Iowa is routinely hitting or exceeding the 20% mark, and more installations are coming online.