Oh, my GOSH, I am giddy.

Please, please, PLEASE let this continue and spare us all any more heartache, with the whole thing imploding under its own weight.

How’s this for a headline?

Wind Industry in Crisis as Problems Mount
More than $30 billion in spending is delayed as setbacks pile up for renewable-energy sector

GIGGITY

You know it caught my eye immediately. The really nice thing was, most of the companies and news inside I’ve been keeping track of for you all! I’m feeling like someone “in the know,” lol.

The wind business, viewed by governments as key to meeting climate targets and boosting electricity supplies, is facing a dangerous market squall.

After months of warnings about rising prices and logistical hiccups, developers and would-be buyers of wind power are scrapping contracts, putting off projects and postponing investment decisions. The setbacks are piling up for both onshore and offshore projects, but the latter’s problems are more acute.

In recent weeks, at least 10 offshore projects totaling around $33 billion in planned spending have been delayed or otherwise hit the doldrums across the U.S. and Europe.

“At the moment, we are seeing the industry’s first crisis,” said Anders Opedal, chief executive of Equinor EQNR -0.35%decrease; red down pointing triangle, in an interview.

And the amazing thing is that the problems that have been building to critical mass in the wind industry itself – massive warranty failures, skyrocketing materials costs that then impact previously negotiated return rates for building the farms, etc – are also being exacerbated (if that’s the word) by peasants waking up to the costs of these ghastly installations. The costs not just monetarily, but in wildlife losses, standards of living, and natural resource destruction.

Alberta, Canada, one of the biggest proponents of renewables on the planets – because, let’s be honest, not many people live there – has just imposed a six-month moratorium on new wind and solar projects in the province [fixed it – Beege]. Why? Well, there may not be many folks there, but those who are are up to their eyeballs with the willy-nilly installation of these ginormous towers and the vast, unrelenting ugliness where once there was pristine farmland, woodlands or just gorgeous scenery. The government actually cited “rural concerns.”

Alberta’s United Conservative government is pausing all approvals of large renewable energy projects in response to what it says are rural and environmental concerns.

In a statement Thursday, the government said the Alberta Utilities Commission is to institute a six-month moratorium on approving all wind and solar power projects greater than one megawatt over issues of development on agricultural land, effect on scenery, reclamation security and system reliability.

“We are proud of our leadership in responsible renewable energy development and we are committed to its continued growth,” said a statement from Nathan Neudorf, minister of affordability and utilities.

“This approach will provide future renewable investments with the certainty and clarity required for long-term development.”

And, of COURSE, the Green cultists who don’t live anywhere near a wind turbine, less mind the Arctic wind swept plains of Alberta are losing their collective minds.

OH, THE HUMANITY

…Environmental groups were quick to condemn the move.

The Canadian Climate Institute said on social media that the moratorium will hurt business.

“Robust reclamation should be required for all energy generation, but pausing approvals is a disruptive market intervention that will create uncertainty for businesses and discourage (investment) when clean electricity is quickly becoming a competitive necessity,” it said.

“This moratorium on renewable energy is bad for business, bad for the environment and bad for Albertans,” Allen Braude of Environmental Defence said in a release.

This is about an 1/8th of the solar farm just built in Alberta.
Danielle Smith just announced a pause until feasibility studies are done affecting farmland. The NDP are losing their minds…… pic.twitter.com/BrurcW0QEq

— Kevin Pacitti 15 🇨🇦🇮🇹🇬🇧 (@kpac_15) August 4, 2023

I love it.

Raptors and their fellow winged creatures have also just won a round in Japan.

The central and local governments have suspended a number of wind farm construction projects over concerns about the protection of endangered birds.

Japan is currently pursuing wind power as a source of clean energy with an eye on reducing carbon dioxide emissions, but fears have also been voiced over wind turbine strikes on rare avian species.

There have been many cases in which imperiled birds of prey — including golden eagles and mountain hawk-eagles — have been killed in bird strikes both domestically and overseas, giving rise to the key issue of balancing decarbonization and the preservation of important species.

How about that?

This ugly monstrosity is going up off the coast of Massachusetts, and all the “right” people are cooing about it…

An electric substation the length of a football field looms three stories above the water. Six yellow T-shaped poles protrude from the waves in a line along the ocean. They will serve as foundations for the project’s first turbines that are scheduled to be installed next week. Two massive vessels worked to complete installing a transmission cable that will bring power to the mainland.

The work, on display during a boat tour Wednesday, is a major step for Massachusetts and the Biden administration, both of which are relying on offshore wind to meet their climate goals. When it is done next year, Vineyard Wind will generate enough electricity to power 400,000 homes while reducing the amount of carbon emissions from 320,000 cars a year.

The construction comes at a time when offshore wind projects in the United States face growing questions related to soaring costs from rising interest rates and supply chain constraints.

“I think it’s important to show folks that it’s real,” said Kim Harriman, vice president of state government relations and public affairs at Avangrid Inc., one of two companies behind the $4 billion project. “While there’s challenges, there’s amazing opportunity.”

…even as one of the companies building it – Avangrid – forked over $48M to wiggle out of another MA contracted wind farm.

…Avangrid , a U.S. subsidiary of Spanish utility Iberdrola, this month agreed to pay $48 million to back out of an offshore wind-power deal in Massachusetts that it bid in September 2021, when outlooks were rosier.

AW

New Jersey fishermen have joined the protests against Gov. Murphy’s pet wind farm projects and the veteran captains are unequivocal that they have never seen anything to equal the losses they are seeing now. Usually, local environmentalists are on the opposite side, but they are all in on this together.

…Veteran fishermen in New Jersey, who have spent decades studying the sea, say the whale deaths and those of other marine mammals are unprecedented and insist a relationship must exist between the surveying and the deaths. As marine mammals use sonar, the theory suggests that the surveying is disrupting the animals’ ability to know where ships are and thus avoid hitting them. NOAA insists that it has no scientific evidence linking the surveying – which, like whales, dolphins, and porpoises, uses sonar for echolocation – to the whale deaths.

“At this point, there is no evidence that noise resulting from wind development-related site characterization surveys could potentially cause mortality of whales, and no specific links between recent large whale mortalities and currently ongoing surveys,” NOAA’s website reads.

Robert Bogan, the captain of the Gambler recreational fishing vessel in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, said in a letter to his Congressman, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), shared with Breitbart News this week that the whale deaths present an entirely new phenomenon to him – something unless in the over half a century Capt. Bogan has spent regularly taking his customers out to fish.

“Dead whales on our beach absolutely and logically have everything to do with the oceanic geo-surveys.”https://t.co/716fvvPPfU

— Rachel Rothe Consulting (@Rach_Ro13) August 7, 2023

It’s not going so well onshore, either.

…Things have become choppy onshore, too. Wind installations on land halved in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period last year, the slowest quarter in four years, according to the American Clean Power Association.

Manufacturers have been struggling with profitability as they deliver ever-larger and more advanced machines, which are more efficient at making electricity. Now some say they are running into problems with wear and tear.

“We have problems both offshore and onshore,” said Tim Proll-Gerwe, spokesman with Siemens Energy. The company, which had previously said quality issues related to its subsidiary’s flagship onshore turbines could cost up to $1.1 billion to fix, on Monday raised that estimate to about $1.75 billion.

Alrighty.

I love good news. Makes me downright cheerful.