GWPF Newsletter: Offshore Wind Fiasco

Renewable Industry Faces $Billions Compensation Bill For Early Repairs

In this newsletter:

1) Offshore Wind Fiasco: Renewable Industry Faces $Billions Compensation Bill For Early Repairs
Jillands-Posten, 23 February 2018
 
2) Forget Paris: Global Fossil Fuel Consumption To Rise By 20% By 2040, BP Energy Outlook
Paul Homewood, Not A Lot Of People Know That, 22 February 2018

 
3) Climate Activist George Soros Makes $160 Million Investments In Oil, Gas & Coal Companies
Richard Pollock, Daily Caller, 19 February 2018
 
4) Germany Solar Thermal Sales Worse Since 2000
Sun & Wind Energy, 20 February 2018
 
5) The Duplicity Of California’s Oil Collapse
Forbes, 20 February 2018

Full details:

1) Offshore Wind Fiasco: Renewable Industry Faces $Billions Compensation Bill For Early Repairs
Jillands-Posten, 23 February 2018

Ørsted is in danger of having to repair the blades of more than 600 offshore wind turbines.T


Ørsted’s wind farm at Anholt was completed in 2013. The turbines’ blades are so worn down already that they have to be brought to land and repaired.  Photo: A2Sea

Ørsted must repair up to 2,000 wind turbine blades because the leading edge of the blades have become worn down after just a few years at sea.

The company has a total of 646 wind turbines from Siemens Gamesa, which may potentially be affected to some extent, Ørsted confirmed.

The wind turbine owner will not disclose the bill, but says that the financial significance is “small”.

Siemens Gamesa also does not want to comment on the costs, but the company’s Danish subsidiary has just provided 4.5 billion Danish Krone ($750 million) or 16% of its revenue to guarantee its commitments. […]

Ørsted’s problems mean, among other things, that almost 300 blades at its offshore wind farm at Anholt have to be taken down after just a few years of operation, sailed ashore and transported to Siemens Gamesa’s factory in Aalborg.

However, it is far from just the Anholt Park that is affected. The blades at several British Ørsted offshore wind farms must also be repaired after just a few years on the water.

The total bill is uncertain, but according to Finans’s information, the manufacturer’s warranty typically covers the first five years. However, there has been disagreement between Ørsted and Siemens Gamesa as to whether the problems are covered by the guarantee or are a case of ordinary wear and tear.

Translation GWPF

Full post (in Danish)

see also: Wind turbines ‘only lasting for half as long as previously thought’ as study shows they show signs of wearing out after just 12 years




 
2) Forget Paris: Global Fossil Fuel Consumption To Rise By 20% By 2040, BP Energy Outlook
Paul Homewood, Not A Lot Of People Know That, 22 February 2018

This year’s BP Energy Outlook is now out:


https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/energy-outlook.html

These are the highlights:

The speed of the energy transition is uncertain and the new Outlook considers a range of scenarios. Its evolving transition (ET) scenario, which assumes that government policies, technologies and societal preferences evolve in a manner and speed similar to the recent past, expects:

Fast growth in developing economies drives up global energy demand a third higher.

The global energy mix is the most diverse the world has ever seen by 2040, with oil, gas, coal and non-fossil fuels each contributing around 25%.

Renewables are by far the fastest-growing fuel source, increasing five-fold and providing around 14% of primary energy.

Demand for oil grows over much of Outlook period before plateauing in the later years.

Natural gas demand grows strongly and overtakes coal as the second largest source of energy.

Oil and gas together account for over half of the world’s energy

Global coal consumption flatlines with Chinese coal consumption seeming increasingly likely to have plateaued.

The number of electric cars grows to around 15% of the car parc, but because of the much higher intensity with which they are used, account for 30% of passenger vehicle kilometres.

Carbon emissions continue to rise, signalling the need for a comprehensive set of actions to achieve a decisive break from the past.

Under the ET scenario, fossil fuel consumption continues to rise steadily from 11354 Mtoe in 2016, to 13308 Mtoe in 2040, an increase of 17%.



The biggest increases occur in Asia, mainly outside of China. Fossil fuel consumption in the US only falls slightly by 3%. And even in the EU, fossil fuels still account for 59% of primary energy in 2040.



Full post
 
3) Climate Activist George Soros Makes $160 Million Investments In Oil, Gas & Coal Companies
Richard Pollock, Daily Caller, 19 February 2018

George Soros made big investment bets on fossil fuel companies in the fourth quarter of 2017 even though he claims these firms contribute to climate change, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation.

In the last quarter of 2017, Soros Fund Management reported investments in eleven new fossil fuel corporations totalling nearly $160 million, according to his company’s December 31, 2017, filing before the Securities and Exchange Commission reviewed by TheDCNF.

His investments in fossil fuels undermines his public pledge to use his money to eliminate the oil, gas and coal industries, claiming they threaten the planet by accelerating climate change.

The billionaire’s most recent political efforts to warn about climate change was his underwriting of the organizations behind the April 29, 2017, “People’s Climate March” that marked the 100th day of President Donald Trump’s administration. Soros donated $36 million to 18 of the march’s 55 steering committee organizations between 2000 to 2014, according to the Media Research Center.

He also agreed to give former Vice President Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection $10 million over a three-year period.

Further, Soros founded and operates his own climate change advocacy group called the Climate Policy Initiative. He pledged to give at least $100 million in 2009 to the institute over ten years and in 2015 he gave $26.5 million to the group, according to his latest filing with the Internal Revenue Service.

Nevertheless, his financial investments in for-profit fossil fuel companies in a single quarter overshadow these contributions.

The billionaire’s newest fossil fuel investment was $87 million in Alerian, MLP, a fund that solely invests in “energy infrastructure” consisting of pipelines, storage tanks and processing plants for crude oil and natural gas. He purchased eight million shares of the company.

His company’s second biggest energy investment was Halliburton, one of the world’s largest oil exploration and drilling companies. His firm purchased 842,000 shares valued at $30 million.

Soros not only invested in oil and natural gas companies, but also into coal. Soros tried to position himself as an enemy of coal, stating at the 2009 Copenhagen climate change summit, “There is no magic bullet for climate change, but there is a lethal bullet: coal.”

In the last quarter, however, he invested $4.7 million into Peabody Energy Corporation, the largest “pure play coal company” in the United States, according to the company’s website. Peabody sold 188 million tons of coal to electric utilities in 2016. The company operates 23 surface and underground mines in the United States and in Australia.

Full story
 
4) Germany Solar Thermal Sales Worse Since 2000
Sun & Wind Energy, 20 February 2018

In Germany 2017 was the weakest year for solar thermal collector sales in more than a decade, according to the combined statistics by associations BDH and BSW-Solar.



Their data reveals that only 78,000 systems were sold last year. The newly installed collector area added up to 625,000 m², down 16 % from 2016 and as much as 72 % from the boom year of 2008. It was an astonishingly poor showing, considering the strong growth in the construction industry and the high incentive amounts available in Germany.

A press release from 13 February 2018 jointly drafted by associations BSW-Solar, representing the solar industry, and BDH, speaking for the heating sector, explicitly mentioned the around EUR 3,600 that homeowners in Germany could get for a state-of-the-art solar thermal unit including a new boiler. There has been only one requirement, namely that the application must be submitted before the start of the retrofit.

Full post

see also: Europe’s Solar Industry Collapsing as Subsidy Cuts Bite
 
5) The Duplicity Of California’s Oil Collapse
Forbes, 20 February 2018

The collapse of the oil industry in California, once our second-most-important producing state, is a very sad thing to see. The U.S. shale revolution has completely passed the state by.

Although domestic crude oil production has reached heights not seen since the early-1970s, and will actually be setting new records this year, California’s oil output has plummeted nearly 60% since peaking in 1985 — with no sign of reversing. In stark contrast, mighty Texas has seen its crude production triple since 2010 alone to 3.6 million b/d.

The facts remain: While California positions itself a leader in “clean energy,” that hardly means that the state doesn’t use oil, still easily our most vital fuel. In fact, California uses a ton of oil. For every vehicle that California has that runs on electricity, it has 115 that run on oil. Here are the overwhelming oil demand numbers in California that the state’s politicians ignore:

Every day, California consumes around 38 million gallons of gasoline…8 million gallons of diesel fuel…and accounts for 20% of all U.S. jet fuel consumption.

Yet, California continually enacts policies to not produce any more oil itself. Unfortunately, imports from undemocratic oil nations have been forced to compensate: California’s Imported Oil Problem. Simply put, oil policies that hurt Canada and favor Saudi Arabia are more “greenwashing” than they are “green.” And poor energy policies also help to explain Why are California’s Gasoline Prices Always Higher?

For shale oil, California could seek the Monterey formation, but that seems highly unlikely. The Monterey “contains vast reserves of oil” and should be key to California economic future. Offshore development? No chance.

And while championing itself as a leader in energy efficiency, Los Angeles Tops INRIX Global Congestion Ranking. “Angelenos spent an average of 102 hours last year in traffic jams during peak congestion hours, costing drivers $2,828 each and the city $19.2 billion from direct and indirect costs.” Although to be fair, this is a national problem: “As much as 15% of all the gasoline burned in America—up to 25% in places like Los Angeles—is burned by cars that aren’t moving.”
But overall, missing out on the shale revolution for California might be worse for the natural gas side of things. Even though, it imports about 95% of its supply, a growing problem considering how pretty much every state is moving increasingly toward more gas-based electricity to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Full post

The London-based Global Warming Policy Forum is a world leading think tank on global warming policy issues. The GWPF newsletter is prepared by Director Dr Benny Peiser - for more information, please visit the website at www.thegwpf.com.