Green Dreams Going Up In Smoke

Wind and solar are both terrible methods of generating electricity, both expensive and unreliable. The one thing that can make the situation worse is the drive to electrify everything, including motor vehicles. The impracticality of this “green” vision has become blindingly obvious, and the “green” movement has begun to fall apart.

Steve noted this afternoon the collapsing share prices of renewable energy companies. Here are some more indications that the “green” movement is spiraling downward:

From the Telegraph: “Electricity prices ‘must rise by 70pc to pay for more wind farms.’”

No new wind farms will be built off Britain’s shores unless the Government lets operators earn more money from the electricity they produce, the chief of the nation’s biggest generator has said.

Tom Glover, country chair of RWE’s UK arm, said the price offered by the Government to wind farm operators must rise by as much as 70pc to entice companies to build.
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His warning follows the disastrous result of the last offshore wind allocation round in September, which ended in a humiliation for ministers with not one company offering to build new offshore wind farms.

From Grid Brief: “GE Offshore Wind to Post $1 Billion in Losses.”

General Electric’s offshore wind division is set to post $1 billion in losses.
“Offshore Wind remains difficult this year with losses of roughly $1 billion,” Chief Executive Officer Larry Culp said on Tuesday. Culp added that he expects similar losses next year, but with a better cash performance.

Culp’s announcement comes as the wind industry reels from sustained headwinds—supply chain snags, materials costs, component price increases, and higher interest rates. Project delays plus decreases in demand for offshore wind are expected.

From Robert Bryce: “Ford Lost $62,016 For Every EV It Sold In 3Q.”

The bloodbath in Ford Motor Company’s EV division continues. On Thursday, Ford reported an operating loss of $1.3 billion in its EV division during the third quarter. That translates into a loss of $62,016 for each of the 20,962 EVs it sold during the period.

That’s a smaller loss than the company recorded in the second quarter, when it lost $72,762 for each EV and the $66,446 it lost per EV during the first quarter.
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In its October 26 press release, Ford provided an additional comment on the EV losses, saying, “According to the company, many North America customers interested in buying EVs are unwilling to pay premiums for them over gas or hybrid vehicles, sharply compressing EV prices and profitability.” …

That’s a truth bomb of the first order, one to which veteran observers of the EV hype should rightly reply, “ya think?” Consumers, that is, consumers who aren’t part of the Benz and Beemer crowd, have been unwilling to pay premiums for EVs throughout the century-long history of the EV business. The question that Ford shareholders should be asking the company’s management, and CEO Jim Farley in particular, is obvious: “What the hell took you so long to recognize that customers aren’t willing to pay high prices for EVs?”

It isn’t just Ford, of course:

On Thursday, Mercedes-Benz reported disappointing earnings and revenues. Reuters quoted the German automaker’s CFO, Harald Wilhelm, who called the EV sector a “pretty brutal space.” Reuter said some automakers are selling EVs at prices “below the level of internal combustion engine cars despite their higher production costs.” It also quoted Wilhelm as saying, “I can hardly imagine the current status quo is fully sustainable for everybody.”
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Last week, Elon Musk warned about slowing demand for EVs after Tesla missed revenue and profit targets for the third quarter. And if Musk is warning about demand, then the EV business must really be in trouble.

“Green” energy companies and electric vehicle manufacturers rely on governments to force consumers to buy their products, like it or not. But there is a limit to how much of a decline in their standard of living voters are willing to accept for the sake of “green” mythology. Blackouts have already begun (not to mention skyrocketing electricity prices), and as blackouts become more widespread, voters are going to punish the politicians who lied to them about “green” energy. Let’s hope that happens before tens of billions more dollars are poured into the coffers of the cynical “green” industries.