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У зелёной энергетики большие проблемы с "зеленью".
И это в условиях, когда ещё продолжаются многомиллиардные субсидии и по-настоящему не началась массовая утилизация старых турбин и башен, которая будет весьма дорогой.
Wind Power Has A Profitability Problem
Despite the strong push to shift to green by installing more renewable energy capacity, many are asking whether the wind energy industry will be able to bounce back quickly from huge losses last year to develop the wind power needed to fuel the green transition. In 2022, several major wind energy firms reported billions in losses due to a plethora of challenges that have made it harder to develop new wind farms worldwide. Now the fear is that companies around the globe may be unwilling to invest in the wind projects needed to accelerate the movement away from fossil fuels to green alternatives if they cannot see the potential for profits.
Despite the sharp growth over the last decade, companies are realising that it is difficult to translate wind power into profits. There is no problem when it comes to the global demand for wind power, which continues to grow year after year as countries attempt to curb their reliance on fossil fuels. But wind power research and development, as well as the construction of enormous wind farms, don’t come cheap and the return so far is not what many companies expected.
In June last year, there were reports that some of the world’s biggest wind energy companies were battling heavy losses. Vestas Wind Systems, General Electric Co., and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy all faced extremely high raw material and logistics costs following the pandemic when supply chains were disrupted. This came after an arms race in which wind majors were competing to build the tallest, most powerful wind turbines at whatever cost would put them ahead of the rest. Ben Backwell, CEO of the trade group Global Wind Energy Council, stated “What I’m seeing is a colossal market failure.”...
By November 2022, GE was predicting $2 billion in losses in its renewable energy division, largely due to inflation and supply chain challenges. This has led the company to make cuts, with plans to reduce its global headcount at onshore facilities by 20 percent over a year. Many wind companies have felt the triple whammy of inflation, reduced tax incentives, and rising interest rates of the last year, adding to the supply chain disruptions of the pandemic. Vestas, the world's biggest wind turbine maker, reported its first annual loss in almost a decade in 2022, of around $1.68 billion. The firm said that its sales last year fell by around 7 percent, and it faced rising costs across several areas...
Ещё:
From GE to Siemens, the wind energy industry hopes billions in losses are about to end
It’s been a tough couple of years for the U.S. wind energy industry. Despite mounting pressure to combat climate change by transitioning to renewable sources, a confluence of factors disrupted supply chains and upended the economics of project financing. Rising inflation and interest rates, the war in Ukraine, and reduced tax incentives have plagued wind turbine manufacturers and developers of both land-based and offshore wind projects...
И да, почему-то появляется всё больше технологических трудностей. Турбины ломаются по всему миру:
Giant Wind Turbines Keep Mysteriously Falling Over. This Shouldn't Be Happening.
- Turbine failures are on the uptick across the world, sometimes with blades falling off or even full turbine collapses.
- A recent report says production issues may be to blame for the mysterious increase in failures.
- Turbines are growing larger as quality control plans get smaller.
The taller the wind turbine, the harder they fall. And they sure are falling.
Wind turbine failures are on the uptick, from Oklahoma to Sweden and Colorado to Germany, with all three of the major manufacturers admitting that the race to create bigger turbines has invited manufacturing issues, according to a report from Bloomberg.
Turbines are falling for the three largest players in the industry: General Electric, Vestas, and Siemens Gamesa. Why? “It takes time to stabilize production and quality on these new products,” Larry Culp, GE CEO, said last October on an earning call, according to Bloomberg. “Rapid innovation strains manufacturing and the broader supply chain.”
Without industrywide data chronicling the rise—and now fall—of turbines, we’re relying on industry experts to note the flaws in the wind farming. “We’re seeing these failures happening in a shorter time frame on the new turbines,” Fraser McLachlan, CEO of insurer GCube Underwriting, told Bloomberg, “and that’s quite concerning.”