Spin put on the government’s recently announced strike prices to three large offshore wind farms has misled many into thinking that the costs of offshore wind are falling. In fact, empirical CAPEX data collated for the first time in a new statistical study published today by GWPF shows that the capital costs for offshore wind remain high. Moreover, as the wind industry moves into deeper water, costs are actually rising offsetting any reduction in costs due to technical progress. —Global Warming Policy Foundation, 25 September 2017
When prices tumble for a product or service, there is generally an observable reason. It might be a cunning technological fix that dramatically boosts productivity, for instance, or the sudden slide in a key input cost. But nothing so obvious can convincingly explain why it is suddenly much cheaper to produce electricity from offshore wind turbines. —Financial Times, 25 September 2017
Energy companies that stunned the world by offering to build wind farms with no subsidy may ruin the industry’s reputation by never actually delivering on their promises. That’s the warning of industry executives, who are cautious about the future of zero-subsidy offshore wind farms planned in Germany this year. —Bloomberg, 19 September 2017
Wind is free, the turbines and installation are too expensive to make business sense. The subsidies are really charitable donations.
Many wind energy companies have been hiding the numbers of birds and bats harmed by windfarms and wind energy advocates have lied about the noise they make and theres still many who oppose windfarms in their neighborhood no matter what the windturbine operators say
I remember a conflict between save-the-whales people and the US Navy using sonar to detect submarines.
Lately there’s been an increase in whale carcasses along the Canadian East Coast. Some say it has coincided with the construction of offshore wind farms. Many of the dead whales have trauma consistent with boat collision. I’m speculating that the subsonic sound waves from wind turbines might be causing problems for the whales.