Hornsea wind project
Much hand-wringing by the climate obsession lobby, but there it is – zero interest in bidding for government offshore wind business, as expected. The government seems to have two choices for more part-time offshore wind – give up or pay up. If it pays up, the already dubious claims of cheapness are toast.
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The government’s green energy plans have been dealt a blow after firms snubbed an auction for contracts to run new offshore wind sites, says Sky News.
There were successful bids for onshore wind, solar, tidal and geothermal projects to supply the grid with electricity.
However, there were none for offshore turbines, which provide the backbone of the UK’s renewables system.
Insiders had warned the process had struggled to attract bidders because the government has set the maximum price generators can receive as too low, failing to reflect the rising costs of manufacturing and installing turbines.
The industry has been hit by inflation that has seen the price of steel rise by 40%, supply chain pressures and increases in the cost of financing.
This year offshore wind producers were allowed a maximum bid of £44 per megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity, compared to £155 per MWh in 2015, based on adjusted figures.
The outcome of the auction is a setback to ministers’ pledge to deliver 50 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind by 2030, from 14 GW currently.
Full article here.
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Wind power snapshot taken today, 8th September 2023…
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
The Heron’s flown.
Will it come back? depends …. will there be fish?
Maybe it’s time to give the unused subsidies to North Sea oil exploration instead.
Make that 50 times more…
NZW: Dismal UK CFD auction results may be a landmark moment
Friday 8th September 2023 | Press release
Short extract:
While offshore wind’s failure to bid may be surprising to some, perhaps even to the Government, it will come as no shock to those familiar with the long-term capital and operating cost trends for wind power, as revealed in audited financial statements. Costs have not been falling dramatically as the industry claimed. All around the world the wind industry is in trouble for the same reasons; costs remain high, and high levels of subsidy are needed to reward investors.
In addition, the latest auction round closes down the loophole that allowed windfarms to reap huge windfall profits by failing to activate their contracts so that they could benefit from higher prices in the open market.
The fact is that wind power, wherever, is an expensive way of generating energy. That isn’t surprising either; wind is a physically low-quality fuel and the cost of turning it into electricity is intrinsically high.
https://www.netzerowatch.com/ar5-cfd-auction-results/
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Meanwhile Greenpeace claims wind power is cheap, while demanding the government forks out more money for it 🥱
JUst about 6.30pm BST – close to sunset over UK and Solar is producing X5 Windpower. Wind @ ONLY a HALF ( ZEROPOINT FIVE for Gen…fitever it is) kWatt. How many phones does that charge? will I get a cooked supper tonight, will I get my new tractor’s battery recharged? in time to get the harvest in before the rain comes? https://www.thomasnet.com/insights/new-holland-t4-electric-tractor
More from NZW’s press release…
Dr John Constable, energy editor of Net Zero Watch, said:
The CfD auction results are symptomatic of a wider failure of wind power around the world. The industry is in a crisis from which it is unlikely to recover, because its costs are simply too high to be sustainable. The time has come for Government to admit that renewables have failed, and to start looking at realistic energy policies.
As more and more Green tech is forced on the economy, costs will continue to rise as Green tech is less efficient and less productive. Politicians, egged on by political fanatics, are once again attempting to disprove Economics in order to get what they want. The tipping point, where reality wins, is arriving faster than I thought it would.
BBC: The UK government said the lack of bids for new offshore wind projects was “in line with similar results in countries including Germany and Spain” and that it was a result of “the global rise in inflation and the impact on supply chains which presented challenges for projects participating in this round”.
8th September
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-66748924
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Challenges which won’t be going away any time soon.
Yep, it’s an inflation feedback loop.
American wind industry also struggling…
Support for offshore wind sinks as costs soar
By David Wojick | September 6th, 2023
Things are looking bad for offshore wind in America (which makes me happy). On one hand, opposition is growing. On the other, the cost crisis is driving prices way up. Whether the offshore US boom will bust remains to be seen, but it is certainly possible. Here’s hoping.
Bad news for the industry is coming in daily, so there is too much to report. Here are just a few samples to give the flavor of the debacle in progress.
https://www.cfact.org/2023/09/06/support-for-offshore-wind-sinks-as-costs-soar/
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How much sacrifice for no reward will people put up with in support of dodgy climate theories, heavy on alarmist assertions but light on empirical evidence that humans are the problem?
Households face £2,300 bills under net zero plans
The cost of shutting down Britain’s gas grid could reach £65bn
9 September 2023
The NIC did not dispute the figures when contacted, although an insider insisted the report was a draft and could change before final publication next month.
The NIC believes the grid could theoretically be converted to carry hydrogen, which is cleaner, but that would also come at cost of “tens of billions of pounds” and there are doubts over the suitability of hydrogen as a mass heating solution.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/09/09/household-energy-bills-britain-gas-grid-shut-down-net-zero/
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‘Theoretically’. Denials all round.
The Telegraph is piling it on…
Electricity from wind isn’t cheap and it never will be
Politicians should stop endorsing an energy source that isn’t particularly clean or secure, and won’t bring down prices
MATT RIDLEY
10 September 2023
The cost of subsidising wind is vast. Then add the cost of getting the power from remote wind farms to where people live. And the cost of balancing the grid and backing wind up with gas plants for the times when the wind drops. And the cost of paying wind farms to reduce output on windy days when the grid can’t take it.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/10/electricity-from-wind-isnt-cheap-and-it-never-will-be/
Germany also struggling with wind power…
Building out the country’s new renewable power grid is another area that has been slowed down by thorny regulations.
Berlin estimates that it needs to build some 8,600 miles of extra power lines to transport electricity from its new renewable wind and solar sources.
But so far, less than 1,200 miles of the new lines have been completed, with current planning procedures leaving the door wide open for local communities to hold planning up for years with complaints.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/09/10/inside-implosion-of-chancellor-olaf-scholz-germany/
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Never mind ‘the climate’, take your power lines somewhere else!
Mannn! It’s cold outside already, under 10C by 7pm … and then they tell me that SOLAR is oversubscribed in Europe https://www.pv-magazine.com/2023/10/04/eu-cross-border-solar-auction-largely-oversubscribed/ ….ffs for Finland’s supply … to Europe ? how? Secure ? Only in Europe can this happen.