GOLDEN CRESCENT AND 1000 ISLAND NEWS

  By  DIANA FURCHTGOTT-ROTH   June 27, 2023   At an idyllic lakeside resort, over 100 students and young professionals from all over Europe discussed alternatives to liberal climate myths. Sundbyholm, Sweden  — Young people understand hypocrisy. They know that celebrities who fly private jets yet advocate small electric vehicles for the masses aren’t serious about reducing CO 2  emissions. They distrust those who prescribe wind and solar power but oppose nuclear power, which has produced most of France’s electricity for decades with no accidents. And they’re wary of those who would drive manufacturing out of Europe to China and then declare success for the approach of “Net Zero.” No wonder then that over 100 students and young professionals from all over Europe, especially Eastern Europe and the Nordic countries, recently came to this idyllic lakeside resort for a  Young Leaders Summit   seeking “conservative” climate-change solutions. From an ear...

  June 23, 2023 The latest revelations of problems at Siemens Gamesa   are a blow not just to the stricken turbine OEM and its boss Jochen Eickholt,  who is aghast by what is unfolding ,   but to one of the biggest players  in the global energy transition, parent group Siemens Energy. Siemens Energy CEO Christian Bruch and Eickholt, the Siemens Gamesa chief executive, made clear that the full scale of the technical issues afflicting the OEM’s legacy fleet is still being assessed,  as they revealed a $1bn-plus bill  for newly uncovered problems,  not to mention issues with its offshore ramp-up and slower-than-hoped-for progress with the manufacturer’s turnaround plan. “I thought Siemens Gamesa would be the smaller problem,” Bruch said ruefully as he reflected on the challenges facing Siemens Energy’s wider business that is set to play a key role equipping energy transition projects around the world. Not so.  Siemens Gamesa’s latest woes wiped ...

  By  ANDREW STUTTAFORD June 27, 2023 There is nothing, I suppose, horribly wrong with deploying wind turbines as just one source of energy among many, so long as that is how they are used. Unfortunately, climate zealots are assigning this technology a prime-time role for which it is not yet ready. Most importantly, we have yet to overcome the problem caused by intermittency (the wind doesn’t always blow), but there have also been signs that  the nature of the “race” to net zero  may also be leading to quality-control issues. I wrote about  this in January , quoting a  Bloomberg  story, from which this is one extract: The race to add production lines for ever-bigger turbines is cited as a major culprit by people in the industry. “We’re  seeing these failures happening  in a shorter time frame on the newer turbines, and that’s quite concerning,” says Fraser McLachlan, chief executive officer of London-based GCube Underwriting Ltd., which insur...

  Wind turbine giant's boss says fears exceeded as technical review uncovers $1bn-plus list of failure-related issues 23 June 2023   By  Andrew Lee    Shocked Siemens Gamesa CEO Jochen Eickholt said the  problems at the wind power giant exceeded his worst fears  as parent company Siemens Energy scrapped its entire profits forecast over ballooning woes at the OEM. Eickholt told reporters a review of the Siemens Gamesa fleet  that kicked off earlier this year  had flagged more issues with turbine components than first thought, singling out bearings and rotor blades and "legacy turbines", without elaborating further. "The result of the current review will be much worse than even I would have thought possible….. (truncated)   Shocked Siemens Gamesa CEO Eickholt: 'Problems much worse than I thought possible' | Recharge (rechargenews.com)

  The ill wind blowing for clean-energy windmills just got stronger. Siemens Energy   shares fell 36% on Friday morning after the company  withdrew its fiscal 2023 profit guidance  late Thursday. Components in wind turbines made by its subsidiary Siemens Gamesa are wearing out faster than expected. The news isn’t just a blow for the company’s shareholders, but for all investors and policy makers betting on the rapid rollout of renewable power.   The problem appears to involve critical parts like bearings and blades.  The average lifespan of a wind turbine can be up to 20 years, but the wear and tear has been spotted in both newly installed and older turbines. The creaky components, which affect 15% to 30% of the installed onshore fleet, will be expensive to fix. Management thinks the cost could run upward of €1 billion, equivalent to $1.09 billion, effectively wiping out more than a third of the profit the company is expected to make doing maintenance ...

  Colorado's U.S. Reps. Ken Buck, Doug Lamborn and Wyoming's Harriet Hageman want energy companies to remove decommissioned wind turbines from leased land before getting federal tax credits, arguing that burden should not fall on landowners across the Eastern Plains. Currently, energy companies are not obligated to remove wind turbines from leased land once they are decommissioned, putting the onus on property owners — typically farmers and ranchers — to remove the turbines, the lawmakers said. The Production Tax Credit Reform Act, which the trio introduced, would amend the Internal Revenue Code to impose the federal tax credit requirement, which would not be retroactive.    According to the United States Geological Survey, as of the first quarter of 2023,  there are 72,731 wind turbines covering 43 states, including Guam and Puerto Rico. A 2011 article by Mark J. Perry, Senior Fellow Emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think tank, say...

  OFFSHORE WIND AT RISK: Another measure   pending in the Assembly has big implications for New York’s offshore wind targets. The bill, A7764, includes a parkland alienation for a cable landing in Long Beach for the Empire Wind 2 project being developed by Equinor and BP. “Without passage of this bill this session, the Empire Wind 2 project will not stay on its timeline, jeopardizing not only this critical initiative but also creating a domino effect delaying and potentially derailing other crucial projects currently in the pipeline: the Empire Wind 1 project, the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal and the Beacon Wind 1 project,”  wrote environmental groups including NYLCV and Sierra Club  in a recent letter to Speaker Carl Heastie and members of the Assembly. The issue has also gotten a  coveted Mark Ruffalo tweet endorsement . The Long Beach City Council passed a home rule message supporting the alienation, but the  Republican sponsor in the Senate of the ori...

  FEDERAL WATCHDOG LOOKS AT WIND:   Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said  the Government Accountability Office has agreed to launch an investigation  “into the impacts of New Jersey’s offshore wind development on the environment, the fishing industry, military operations, navigational safety and more.” The investigation of the offshore wind industry — which would presumably focus on actions by federal officials who oversee projects, like those at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management — was  requested by Smith and other congressional Republicans, including Rep. Jeff Van Drew, amid mounting opposition to offshore wind and questions about the industry’s effects on the environment . Smith’s office said the office informed Smith of the investigation in a letter and by phone. “It is absolutely  critical that New Jersey residents understand all the impacts of these offshore wind projects—which will permanently transform our marine environment and seascape and could put ...

  In mid-March, the Department of Energy announced it was offering $750 million for “research, development, and demonstration efforts to dramatically reduce the cost of clean hydrogen.” The agency claimed hydrogen is “set to play a vital future role in reducing emissions” and that “hydrogen development   will strengthen America’s energy independence .”  On May 22, the DOE announced it was awarding some $42 million that will be spent on 22 projects in 14 states to “advance critical technologies for producing, storing, and deploying clean hydrogen.”  In a press release , the agency said it was continuing to “make strides toward achieving President Biden’s Investing in America agenda — to reach a 100% clean electricity grid by 2035 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.” The release quoted Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm as saying the spending plan is a “bold step” in the decarbonization effort and that the “bold investments are ensuring the U.S. leads the way in hyd...

  On Monday, in order to meet extra demand to power air conditioning, National Grid  broke a 46-day run  in which coal had not been used to generate electricity in Britain. But as the country swelters in the heat, commentators and green campaigners have asked why coal and not renewables were used to plug the gap.   What actually happened?   Late on Sunday night, after a day in which temperatures had  topped 30C  in some parts of the country, National Grid’s electricity system operator (ESO) requested that the Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal plant be readied to burn coal to generate power. The ESO is tasked with balancing electricity supply and demand. Germany’s Uniper, which owns the Nottinghamshire power station, brought one unit into action on Monday morning, with a second following in the late afternoon to support the evening peak. Several factors had combined to put strain on the grid: the surge in demand for aircon; a fault on the 1,400-megawatt North Sea ...

  Here is the irony, the people who need air-conditioning the most don’t have it! Greater demand for air-conditioning means greater demand for electricity. Anyway, we loved this excerpt from the article: Naresh Tatavet, a personal driver in Delhi, is among those who’ve had enough. This month, he bought his young family their first AC, calling it one of the biggest financial investments he’s ever made — on par with purchasing a motorbike. In his neighbourhood, after somebody purchases an AC, “we bring them sweets to celebrate.” Whatever happens in Washington, Brussels and other faraway places,  Tatavet is sure of one thing: His family won’t go back. He can no longer watch his baby throw up from the heat.  “I don’t want to wake up drenched in sweat anymore,” he said. The more we think of it the more we are coming to realise that  this isn’t a “climate war” rather it is a war between rich and poor nation s. Do you really think that poorer/emerging nations will...