| Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005. |
Wind energy industry tells the truth
Author: | Economics, Technology
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Renewable Energy World
‘Renewable Energy a ‘Finance-driven’ Industry’
‘AWEA 2009 and the wild west’
15 05 2009
“The dust has settled after the American Wind Energy Association’s meeting and tradeshow in Chicago, IL last week.”
“At this tradeshow, you could even find examples of modern day medicine shows.”
“Promises of a brave new energy future based on eye-catching, grandiose claims. There’s no way to know if these claims are valid because there’s no time to check. If you’re not on the bandwagon already you’ve missed the opportunity.”
“You could also find companies resting on their laurels. They are the “standard”, but that “standard” was established pre-1990. However, investment companies have nothing else to latch onto as a benchmark. So some companies are in the catbird seat because they dominate the industry with old science and technological superstition.”
Link provided:
“Medicine shows were traveling horse and wagon teams which peddled miracle medications and other products between various entertainment acts.”
http://spackle.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/awea-2009-and-the-wild-west
Barron’s
May 16, 2005
Thomas Donolon
Monday, May 16, 2005.
‘Edison’s Legacy Has No Place for Wind Power’
“…It is shameful that GE, a highly profitable company, has decided to take advantage of faulty federal and state wind energy policies by producing turbines for “wind farms.”
“In addition to environmental damage…, wind power has an economic flaw that any GE engineer ought to be able to imagine: Since no human power can turn the wind on and off when it’s wanted for electricity, every bit of wind power capacity must be backed up by another generating source…Immelt, an engineer, understands this but he provided the executive’s counter argument:” “The customers want it, so it’s GE’s job to produce it.”
BJD editor’s note:
Jeffrey Immelt is the CEO and Chairman of the Board of GE, operating in more than 100 countries, employing over 300,000 people, with revenues of over $131 billion in 2002. Immelt concedes that he understands the flaws behind the premise that wind turbines provide any “solution.” GE is the U.S. largest wind turbine manufacturer.
Wall Street Journal moderated debate.
“Benjamin W. Heineman, Jr., has served as a senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of GE since 1997”:
“Mr. Heineman writes:”
“Fred, when Jeff Immelt announced this initiative he made absolutely clear it was about business and increasing profits. Our short form summary was, as I mentioned a moment ago, “green is green.”
“The whole initiative is market driven. We are not asking for government regulation. We believe our customers want this technology.”
Renewable Energy World
“The clean tech sector is the fastest growing area of the venture asset class and fertile ground for growth and profits, said Ira Ehrenpreis, general partner, Technology Partners, and conference chairman. The environment and profit go hand in hand, according to Ehrenpreis. “Clean tech is all about the green, not the environment,” he said.”
Source, the Chairman of the Clean Tech Investor Summit: “The Clean Tech Investor Summit, now in its fifth year, brought venture capitalists and emerging clean tech companies from diverse sectors together in Palm Springs, CA, in January, for two days of panel sessions and networking opportunities.”
New York Times
March 27, 2009
‘Cape Wind Navigates Shifts in Market’
By Kate Galbraith
“But G.E. no longer makes any offshore turbines, according to Steve Fludder, the head of G.E.’s green business unit who sat own for a wide-ranging interview with the Times on Wednesday.”
“G.E. has instead focused its turbine business where it sees the vast majority of demand: on land.” “Offshore wind”, said Mr. Fludder, is “just a vastly costlier proposition – not for us but for the world.”
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/cape-wind-navigates-shifts-in-market/#comment-45839
Country Guardian UK
March 17, 2009
‘Shell dumps wind, solar and hydro power in favour of biofuels’
“Shell will no longer invest in renewable energy technologies such as wind, solar and hydro power because they are not economic, the Anglo-Dutch oil company said today…”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/17/royaldutchshell-energy
Boston Globe
September 9, 2008
World’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines, Vestas, President and CEO Ditlev Engle stated of the Cape Wind project proposal to the Boston Globe:
“And, therefore, I am really wondering why anybody wants to put them up offshore because it’s twice the price. So just as an outsider, I am just scratching my head saying, “Why?”
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/09/21/the_answers_to_him_are_blowing_in_the_wind/
Business Green
“Vestas, the world’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines, has today urged political leaders to focus more on increasing capacity from onshore wind farms, amid warnings that the cost of installing offshore wind turbines will continue to rise.”
Senior Vice President of Vestas Peter Kruse:
“The only way forward is more turbines in virgin ground onshore ,” and, “Politicians want offshore so they can avoid the Nimby discussion, but they are allowing a tiny minority to force the rest of the population to pay double for renewable energy.”
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2217931/vestas-calls-greater-focus
Los Angeles Times
November 15, 2002
“General Electric Co. is seeking the refund of almost half the $358 million it paid to an Enron Corp. unit for wind-turbine manufacturing assets, lawyers told a federal bankruptcy judge in New York on Thursday. “It’s standard procedure,” said Dennis Murphy, a spokesman for GE Power Systems, who confirmed the company’s refund request. “Purchasers have certain protections built in. If the purchase price didn’t accurately reflect the value of the asset, we can petition,” he said.”
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/nov/15/business/fi-wind15
Telegraph UK
‘Wind farms fail to deliver value for money, report claims’
By Patrick Sawyer 14 Sep 2008
“Wind farms are failing to deliver value for money and distorting the development of other renewable energy sources, a report claims” “Excessive subsidies make them an expensive and inefficient way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a study by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) think-tank says.”
Reuters
November 7, 2008
By Bernie Woodall
‘California study shows high cost of renewable power’ “While renewable power one day may compete with baseload power sources such as natural gas, coal and nuclear, it currently is more costly, and much less dependable.”
California Public Utility Commission Report
Renewable Energy World
“The nation needs an ambitious plan to promote the deployment of wind and other renewable energy technologies – and the urgent first step it must take is to rapidly extend the expiring renewable energy credits, which are the primary incentive that the nation provides for these technologies today.”
— Randall Swisher, Executive Director, AWEA
Wind Power Monthly
‘The Gearbox: Wind power’s Achilles heal’
//docs.wind-watch.org/gear-box-problems.doc
Jim Gordon of Cape Wind
“We looked at the portfolio – we’ve got gas, we’ve got oil, and we’ve got coal,” Gordon says, drumming his desk for emphasis. “But we don’t have renewable energy.”
http://in.rediff.com/money/2007/jul/21spec.htm
The Union Leader
April 6, 2009
“According to a March 26, 2008 report by the Daily News in Bangor, Maine, UPC Wind president and CEO Paul Gaynor said the company would do a better job in the future about letting local residents know what to expect from wind farms.
“I know there was an expectation (in Mars Hill) about what these were going to sound like,” Gaynor told the Daily News. “These are big structures and they do make sound.”
Shortly after Gaynor spoke to the Maine newspaper, the firm changed its name to First Wind. It was formerly known as Global Winds Harvest/UPC.
http://www.the-leader.com/homepage/x1931060317
Michael Alvarez, President First Wind
“At first, we were receiving great performance from the turbines,” said Michael Alvarez, executive vice president and COO of UPC Wind Partners LLC.
http://www.snl.com/InteractiveX/snapshot.aspx?ID=4088628
Copenhagen Post
January 1, 2007:
“ENERGY GIANTS SAY WIND POWER IS HOT AIR”
“The country’s energy companies are not convinced that wind power is the way of the future. Management at Denmark’s energy companies, DONG Energy and Vattenfall, do not subscribe to the current mindset that wind energy will be especially prominent in the future, reported national public broadcaster DR. The companies believe that coal-powered electricity will still be the largest supplier of the nation’s energy, despite the trend toward environmentally friendly sources.
‘Wind energy can’t solve the energy problem in the near future because it’s too unstable and possibly too expensive,’ said Anders Eldrup, chief executive of Dong Energy [Denmark’s largest energy company].”
http://www.stopillwind.org/downloads/WhyWindWontWork.pdf
Flemming Nissen head of development at West Danish generation company ELSAM (one of Denmark’s largest energy utilities):
“Increased development of wind turbines does not reduce Danish CO2 emissions”
Neils Gram of the Danish Federation of Industries:
“In green terms windmills are a mistake and economically they make no sense…”
Aase Madsen, an MP who chairs energy policy in the Danish Parliament:
“For our industry it has been a terribly expensive disaster.”
Chief Executive of Dong Energy, Denmark’s largest energy company, Anders Eldrup:
“Wind energy can’t solve the energy problem in the near future because it’s too unstable and possibly too expensive.”
Download original doument: “The wind energy industry tells the truth”
This material is the work of the author(s) indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.
The copyright of this material resides with the author(s). As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Queries e-mail.
| Wind Watch relies entirely on User Funding |
 (via Paypal) |
 (via Stripe) |
Share:
[ Short URLs: https://wind-watch.org/doc/?p=1435 | http://wndfo.net/D1435 ]
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
