“Green” Energy Circles the Drain

One of the more laughable left-wing themes is the claim that Europe’s energy shortage will hasten a transition to wind and solar energy. Actually, the opposite is happening: when you are in danger of freezing to death, you don’t go shopping for windmills that produce hardly any electricity, less than half the time. “Green” energy is a luxury of the rich who have plenty of energy to spare.

In Germany, the wind industry is crashing:

Wind energy is supposed to step in and play a key role in supplying Germany with energy as other sources get cut off. But that too is not going to plan.
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The German government aims to solve the country’s massive energy woes by doubling wind energy output over the next decade or so, but wind parks just aren’t getting built and orders are “collapsing sharply”, falling by “more than a third in the third quarter” at Siemens Gamesa year-on-year.
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Blackout News cites “incalculable record raw material prices and supply chain problems” and a lack of profitability. Companies like Nordex are closing plants in Germany and moving production offshore to places like China.

The unplanned lack of wind energy expansion in combination with the massive supply stop of Russian natural gas is acting to further compound the German government’s problems as it struggles to keep the country supplied with energy while it suicidally pushes for the electrification of transportation and the closure of nuclear and coal power plants.

“Siemens Gamesa made a loss of almost one billion euros in the past fiscal year and sales fell by four percent,” according to Blackout News. “Vestas has already made a loss of just under one billion euros, compared with a profit of 135 million euros a year earlier.”

Shockingly, “it is becoming increasingly difficult to find financiers willing to invest in wind turbines.” Which of course would not be the case if wind were a viable means of keeping Germany heated and its lights on.

Then we have Africa. Greenies assure us that wind and solar are cheaper than oil, gas and nuclear. Of course, we know that isn’t true: if it were, there would be no need for mandates and subsidies to coerce use of these inefficient and unreliable sources of energy. Africans may live in underdeveloped countries, but they aren’t stupid:

If renewables are the cheapest form of energy, why is Africa making a dash for gas, with greens in developed nations scrambling to organise climate finance to persuade Africans to build renewables instead?

The question of whether Africa should be allowed to exploit its gas reserves, estimated at more than 17.56 trillion cubic meters (620 trillion cubic feet) in 2021, has been much discussed at the latest UN climate change summit, COP27, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

Former US vice president Al Gore used his speech at the opening session to urge an end to all fossil fuel investment globally, including in Africa. But Macky Sall, the president of Senegal and chairperson of the African Union, argued at the same event that Africa needs space in Earth’s dwindling carbon budget to use its resources for development.

Of course he did! No one who has a choice opts for expensive and intermittent energy.

Absurdities like this make it completely obvious claims renewables are cheap are nonsense. Otherwise there would be no need for COP conferences, government funded grid upgrades, renewable energy target certificates, and other renewable energy initiatives.

If renewables were the cheapest form of energy, there would be no talk of exploiting untapped gas reserves. People in Africa and elsewhere would be flocking to embrace renewables of their own free will.

But of course, not being stupid, they don’t do anything of the sort. Anyone can see that cheap, reliable energy is better than expensive, intermittent energy. Anyone but a fool, or, in other words, a “green.”