Big Blades Turn Out to Be a Big Bust

AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

For all the billions dumped into the offshore wind game, the companies playing seem to be folding their cards after blowing through the available funds and coming up way short.

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It's so peculiar how consistent the trend has been. It's almost like someone should have noticed it a long time ago and maybe saved the taxpayer and the ocean itself the time, destruction, wasted effort, and pain it has all caused.

The latest casualty of cruel reality checks is none other than GE Vernova, manufacturer of the once-vaunted Halliade monster blades that would be the key to electrifying coastal areas from England to New England in the greenest of green carbon-free fashion.

The Vernova Halliade blades have had a rough run the past six months or so, if you'll remember. There have been two failures off of the British coast in the much-ballyhooed Dogger Banks wind development. Supposedly, those were 'installation' problems. 

But the one that really caused a stir was the blade failure on one of the first turbines in a new Massachusetts farm off Nantucket. A turbine, mind you, that had yet even to become operational - they were testing it and the 300+ foot Hallaide blade snapped and shredded into fettuccine. The resulting fiberglass shards, remnants, and chunks covered beaches on nearby Nantucket while washing ashore on several other states' coastlines and causing severe heartburn among the formerly friendly-to-wind-power blue state residents.

Bloomberg described them as "raging" about the blade's detritus.

Weeks after a busted wind turbine washed onto Nantucket shores, residents of this wealthy Massachusetts enclave are still angry. Some even liken the accident to an oil spill.

While their ire belies the fleeting nature of the event — waters were re-opened for swimming within 24 hours — the sense of harm felt by the community threatens to cast a long shadow. Vineyard Wind's project south of Nantucket is the fledgling industry's marquee venture, heralding a massive buildout of wind energy that would provide coastal cities with zero-carbon electricity. What happens here could have implications for a raft of other projects planned off Martha’s Vineyard, Atlantic City and elsewhere on the Eastern seaboard.

The great Nantucket experiment gets an F-minus," says Kevin O'Leary, chairman of O'Leary Ventures and an investor on the reality show Shark Tank who visits Nantucket every summer. “It's not a golden example of success in wind turbines, that's for sure.

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Suddenly, renewables weren't so cool when they fouled up your pristine and exclusive little enclave.

Shortly thereafter, the second blade at Dogger Banks croaked, and then word came that GE Vernova, which was supposed to provide the turbines for another of verminous New Jersey governor Phil Murphy's ruinous wind farm schemes, had pulled out of that development, too, basically crippling the entire plan.

...GE Vernova should ring a bell to my regulars as the manufacturer associated with the Nantucket disaster. Vestas is another Danish firm I've written about before who've had tremendous warranty losses over the past year, and they were dropped. That left the Spanish-German firm Siemens Gamesa, which jacked its prices up, perhaps because it was also experiencing financial difficulties.

When you see a chance to recoup a little cha-ching in rough times because you're the last guy standing, you go for it.

The law of supply and demand. Sometimes, it pays off...

In the latest blow to the US offshore wind sector, developer Invenergy has asked to pause a 2.4GW project after its planned turbine supplier GE Vernova axed plans for 18MW machines and second choice Siemens Gamesa “substantially” jacked up its prices.

So, here we are. 

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...No further details. Industry is on the rocks.

And here is GE Vernova. Where does that leave anyone whose utilities are tied to anything wind and GE-related?

On a floating blade without a paddle.

The energy company GE Vernova said on Friday that it would pare back its troubled offshore wind business, which has been hit with financial losses and accidents. The changes, which are aimed at coping with a difficult environment for the wind industry, could result in around 900 job losses.

The company’s struggles are a blow to the offshore wind industry, which is a major source of electric power in northern Europe and is thought to have potential to supply large volumes of green energy to the East Coast of the United States.

A substantial downsizing of GE Vernova would leave just two main western players, Siemens Gamesa of Germany and Vestas Wind Systems of Demark — a situation that could leave the industry short of construction capacity and could push equipment prices higher, raising consumers’ bills.

COULD PUSH EQUIPMENT PRICES HIGHER, RAISING CONSUMERS' BILLS

Well, hey! That's great! Isn't that what already happened with renewables? The "cheaper" green alternative to the affordable, reliable energy sources we used to have has already cost consumers plenty - the complete opposite of what they were promised. 

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And now they have even higher prices to look forward to if the climate cult-driven madness continues?

Even as this fraudulent green grift madness is collapsing under its own weight from lack of results and diminishing government largesse, you might wonder why you're not hearing much out of one of its biggest proponents who happens to be running for president at the moment.

There's a reason for that, don't you know. Progressives and Democrats see the majority of Americans are completely over the scam. They have enough problems now and don't want to remind voters they're responsible for any more misery than they have to.

..."Climate die-hards openly admit that it will cost them votes if [Kamala Harris] talks about the climate. They know the voters don’t want it, and the only way keep the Green Gravy flowing is to hide it."

Particularly where there is a clear, common-sense, anti-wind, pro-energy alternative on the ballot already.

...The offshore-wind industry has grappled with inflation and supply chain disruptions, which have prompted project delays and cancellations. Multiple companies have taken billions of dollars in combined writedowns on US projects in the past year, and the prospect of Donald Trump, an avowed critic of wind power, winning the presidency has cast a shadow over the industry.

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I hope that shadow is long and dark and terrifying to the grifters.

Americans wouldn't be so resentful, so militant had any of this been a process instead of a mandated disaster. Had the American people been invited instead of instructed and been allowed to be a part of a process, as opposed to an imperial proscription of our standard of living and way of life as selfish, catastrophic, and morally wrong, perhaps we would be more amenable to discussion.

Then, we see the resultant hypocritical folly play out, justifying every objection and resistance action.

Maybe someone should have thought this out a little further before jumping in?

...The accidents suggest that offshore wind may be a riskier, less predictable industry than was previously thought. Shallow coastal waters are “obviously a good place for wind; that is why they do it” in those areas, Andrew Kaplowitz, an analyst at Citigroup, said in a recent interview. “But it does seem like conditions can be a bit more variable.”

Who knew the open ocean could be so very troublesome and nothing like a computer simulation?

We did.

For knuckle-draggers, we're pretty smart.

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