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Thread: The Offshore Wind Scam

  1. #1
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    The Offshore Wind Scam

    "Last year, I wrote a blog post setting out the financial situation of Hywind, the UK’s first commercial floating offshore windfarm, and indeed the first in the world. It was an ugly tale, with a hugely lossmaking operation kept in the black only by a vast transfer of subsidies. However, Hywind has recently published its second set of financial results since it became fully operational, and so we can now start to get a handle on its operational performance and underlying costs, and publish what I believe is the first estimate of the levelised cost of floating offshore wind.

    Situated off Peterhead, in what appears to be something of a sweet spot for wind, it is unsurprising that Hywind’s performance is rather better than your typical offshore windfarm. Renewables advocates are keen to point out that its capacity factor (the electricity generated as a percentage of the theoretical maximum) has reached 57%. However, in 2020/2021, that fell back to just 51%, which is only a few points ahead of recent fixed offshore windfarms.

    Meanwhile its costs are extraordinarily high. We already knew that its capital cost, at £8.9m/MW. was around three times the that of fixed offshore wind. But its opex costs are also much higher than might be expected. As a rule of thumb, fixed offshore wind opex starts at around £100,000/MW per year, and then rises from there as the turbines age. However, Hywind seems to have started out from a much higher base – its opex costs have averaged over £200,000/MW per year since it became operational.

    With only marginally better operational performance than fixed offshore, and costs that are several times higher, there is no hope that Hywind’s overall levelised cost will be anything other than disastrously expensive. I estimate the LCOE figure as £224/MWh, a value that is unchanged since last year, suggesting that the value is reasonably robust. This is approximately double that of fixed offshore wind, and perhaps five to six times what we would expect for electricity from gas turbines. (As always when comparing wind and gas, we should note that the comparison is misleading, since wind should carry a considerable extra cost burden because of its intermittency, which is expensive to correct).

    There can therefore be little doubt that Hywind is a failure. Kincardine, the UK’s second floating offshore windfarm, looks as though it will be more expensive still. It seems beyond doubt that floating offshore wind is a financial disaster.

    Unsurprisingly, the government is ploughing ahead with it regardless."

  2. #2
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    Problem is we import as much natural gas from Norway as we produce ourselves.
    And the actual cost of producing electricity from fossil fuels is accelerated climate change which is not factored in for political and commercial reasons so it's actually infinitely more expensive, not cheaper.
    Green energy is sustainable and moreover, it's ours i.e. British so has numerous advantages for the long term future of UK PLC, but I agree the idea of having floating wind farms is currently ridiculously more expensive than fixed wind farms. Both could be a lot cheaper but that's largely because the massive corporate fossil fuel producers have intentionally held back R & D in green energy for decades - often buying up promising green technologies and shelving them so they can't compete or be developed so they're more efficient than fossil fuels.
    That will have to change - hopefully in time.
    Not sure it will happen in time though because of the Arctic situation i.e. fresh water melt into the sea disrupting ocean flow and the exposure of the tundra which releases methane that is hundreds of times more destructive then carbon emissions. The Arctic is warming up twice as fast as the rest of the planet.
    Last edited by wanderlust; 01-08-2021 at 12:35 PM.

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    While we fool around with windmills and solar panels, hoping for miniscule reductions in CO2 emissions, forcing millions into fuel poverty, the elephant in the room is studiously ignored by the environmentalists and their hapless disciples in government.

    "China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam plan to build more than 600 coal power units"

    https://www.theguardian.com/environm...wer-investment

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by sinkov View Post
    While we fool around with windmills and solar panels, hoping for miniscule reductions in CO2 emissions, forcing millions into fuel poverty, the elephant in the room is studiously ignored by the environmentalists and their hapless disciples in government.

    "China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam plan to build more than 600 coal power units"

    https://www.theguardian.com/environm...wer-investment
    Correct Sinkov. Has anyone considered here what life will look like with net zero carbon?? They do not want to spell that our too much do they because you wont be doing or going anywhere.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Deadlydave View Post
    Correct Sinkov. Has anyone considered here what life will look like with net zero carbon?? They do not want to spell that our too much do they because you wont be doing or going anywhere.
    exactly Dave....it about control, transfer of wealth and consolidation of power....look behind the wind, (equinor and mubadala) the regular culprits are hiding there - Blackrock, State street, Vanguard etc....with trillions and trillions worth of assets, who's the boss !




    ..


  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Norder View Post
    exactly Dave....it about control, transfer of wealth and consolidation of power....look behind the wind, (equinor and mubadala) the regular culprits are hiding there - Blackrock, State street, Vanguard etc....with trillions and trillions worth of assets, who's the boss !




    ..

    Take a little look at ESG investing Sinkov; the boss is those using the voting rights given by millions of investors in pension funds etc via Shares so they can transform society against your interests by using Green, Woke Progressive and Marxist policies. I work in the advice industry and not a single client has ever asked for this stuff. It's a manufactured concept by Government, the FCA and corporations to use money to determine outcomes for the future. The money is going to China etc; the have no issues with concentration camps etc that's moral and fine, but god forbid you invest in the defence industry here in Britain; that won't do at all. I don't think the general public don't have a clue what is going on behind the scenes, Blackrock alone controls over 4 Trillion Dollars of funds and a lot of it is invested in ways that undermine your freedom and long term economic security. I've never seen the like of this in over 22 years in the business as what is happening now. We are in big trouble, its the very definition of Fascism; govt , NGO's and corporations all colluding together.
    Last edited by Deadlydave; 01-08-2021 at 10:02 PM.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by sinkov View Post
    While we fool around with windmills and solar panels, hoping for miniscule reductions in CO2 emissions, forcing millions into fuel poverty, the elephant in the room is studiously ignored by the environmentalists and their hapless disciples in government.

    "China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam plan to build more than 600 coal power units"

    https://www.theguardian.com/environm...wer-investment
    As the article says....
    "solar and windfarms could already generate cheaper electricity than more than 85% of the country’s existing coal plants, and that by 2024 renewable energy will be able to outcompete all coal-fired power.

    In India, the world’s second largest coal power generator, and Indonesia, renewable energy will also be able to outcompete coal by 2024, while in Japan and Vietnam coal will be uneconomic compared with renewables by 2022"

    ...so if that's true you have to wonder why they're planning to do it other than it being a shortcut to getting economic supremacy over the West who gained economic domination using fossil fuels in the first place.
    So if it's true, from a British perspective we'll be able to stay on top by going down the renewables route - although it won't matter a toss if the whole world is f***** in 30 years. Thankfully I won't be around to see it.

  8. #8
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    Interesting article on Asian coal plants today: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58066660

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by wanderlust View Post
    Interesting article on Asian coal plants today: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58066660
    So the man from the Pru has got a plan to shut down hundreds of Asian coal powered plants. Best of luck with that one. It's not that many years ago that the Chinese and Indians were planning to build 850 coal-powered plants between them, so just 600 planned now in five different countries is progress of sorts I suppose, although it's probaly only because most of that 850 have now been built and are operational.

    Never mind, while the far east coal powered plants spew their tons of muck out 24/7, we can follow government advice to help save the planet, consider not rinsing your plates before putting them in the dishwasher. Jesus fecking wept.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by sinkov View Post
    So the man from the Pru has got a plan to shut down hundreds of Asian coal powered plants. Best of luck with that one. It's not that many years ago that the Chinese and Indians were planning to build 850 coal-powered plants between them, so just 600 planned now in five different countries is progress of sorts I suppose, although it's probaly only because most of that 850 have now been built and are operational.

    Never mind, while the far east coal powered plants spew their tons of muck out 24/7, we can follow government advice to help save the planet, consider not rinsing your plates before putting them in the dishwasher. Jesus fecking wept.
    What's happened to the autistic Scandinavian broad? She's gone all quiet lately.

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