Wind Energy: Blowing It
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 insures about $3.5 billion in wind assets in 38 countries. If the failure rate keeps climbing, he says, insurance premiums could increase or new coverage limits could be imposed.
The race to net zero is an updated example of central planning. As I noted back in January:
A frequent characteristic of central planning is an insistence on speed. Production must be pushed ahead! Targets must be hit! That the timetable makes no sense and may even damage the quality of what is being produced is almost never the concern it should be.
One of the companies mentioned as having had quality-control problems was Siemens Energy’s Siemens Gamesa unit.
Those don’t appear to have gone away.
Among the issues which arise from operating wind turbines, wear and tear on turbine blades over time can lead to erosion.The increasing size of blades on turbines also raises the risk of lightning strikes and repairs. For offshore wind, harsh weather conditions can also result in corrosion of foundations or of the turbine.
Leading wind turbine maker Vestas flagged quality issues with turbine blades in their onshore fleet in 2020 and provided an extra 600 million euros to fix them. Its shares fell more than 6% on Friday, while shares in Siemens Energy, the second biggest wind turbine maker, sank 37%.
Most of the problems of Siemens Energy’s wind unit Siemens Gamesa concern its onshore turbine fleet, where the group has discovered quality issues in certain components, including rotor blades and bearings.
Siemens Energy said that 15%-30% of the fleet could be affected by the problems, which were exposed during a review that noted “abnormal vibration behaviour of some components” and unspecified problems around product design.
Dealing with issues could cost more than 1 billion euros, it said.
15–30 percent of the fleet. Oh.
More than a billion euros. Oh.
Chief executive Christian Bruch has told reporters “Even though it should be clear to everyone, I would like to emphasise again how bitter this is for all of us”.
Following these reported issues “the board initiated an extended technical review of Siemens Gamesa’s installed fleet” the firms said.
These problems concerned onshore wind turbines, but it is also worth thinking of the regular wear and tear on offshore facilities, where, even when they are working well, wind turbines face tough operating conditions.
Capell Aris, writing in the Daily Telegraph:
[ The offshore wind farms Hornsea Two and Moray East were completed in 2022 with capital costs of £2.77 billion per GW and £2.75bn/GW, more than four times the cost of CCGT [Combined Cycle Gas Turbine] capacity. They’re expensive to maintain, which is not surprising since offshore windfarms have all their many generators mounted at the top of 200-metre tall masts far away from land. Estimates of maintenance costs are as high as £200m per GW installed, per annum. The nominal cost of offshore wind generation is £170/MWh – noticeably higher than that for CCGTs, even in these dire times of high gas prices.
This is not how things were meant to be. Funny that.
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