Less than one per cent of the way to the Biden 2030 target
Aslow-motion collapse in the offshore wind industry continues to grow as sticky inflation and supply chain challenges force developers to delay or cancel major projects. In particular, progress towards the Biden administration’s goal of building large amounts of floating wind off the northeastern US coast is just about stalled. The Telegraph has the story.
Shell, which invested in a series of offshore wind projects in recent years, including offshore the northeastern United States, announced last week it would lay off much of its offshore wind business staff as the oil giant advances its program of refocusing on its core oil and gas business.
“We are concentrating on select markets and segments to deliver the most value for our investors and customers,” a Shell spokesperson told Bloomberg. “Shell is looking at how it can continue to compete for offshore wind projects in priority markets while maintaining our focus on performance, discipline and simplification.”
Wind turbine maker Siemens Gamesa announced even bigger layoffs, saying it would cut 15 per cent of its global staff to adjust to a slowing market. The announcement comes after the company reported a €4.6 billion loss for 2023, a losing trend that has continued over the first half of 2024.
“Our current situation demands adjustments that go beyond organizational changes. We have to adapt to lower business volumes, reduced activity in non-core markets, and a streamlined portfolio,” said outgoing CEO Jochen Eickholt in a letter to staff.
On May 29 came survey results compiled by London-based energy consultancy Westwood indicating the global floating offshore wind industry is likely to deliver less than 3 gigawatts (GW) of new floating generation capacity by 2030, and a total of roughly 10 GW by 2040. Westwood cites lack of standardization of floating technology (55 per cent), manufacturing capability and capacity (51 per cent) and port infrastructure (50 per cent) as the primary impediments.
In light of the industry’s gloomy outlook, Westwood notes that “calls are ringing out for governments to provide more specific policy and regulatory support for technology development in addition to cost reduction and investment in port infrastructure to accelerate adoption.”
This is completely predictable, since the voracious rent-seeking wind business invariably calls for more government largesse in response to any challenge that arises. Unfortunately, the call is too often answered by policymakers who have made big political bets on being able to show off arrays of mammoth windmills floating atop various oceans and seas, intermittently producing some electricity – generally 25-30 per cent of nominal plant capacity over time.
This latest bad news for offshore wind could become especially troublesome for US President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, since he has invested so much of his personal political capital in pushing a major buildout of floating offshore wind in the Atlantic northeast. A 2023 Department of Energy fact sheet sets the administration’s goal of installing 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 for the US alone, exceeding Westwood’s just estimated potential for global new capacity by that year by a factor of 10 times over.
The ultra-high-decibel sonar emitted by wind industry survey vessels during wind farm construction deafens marine mammals, so does piledriving: the repetitive, percussive pounding of the columns that support the turbines (see above); the piles are 8m in diameter and over 100m long – 30-60m of which gets punched into the seabed.
The offshore wind industry is killing whales and other marine mammals by a variety of means, including collisions with boat traffic in areas where there previously was none. Whales and other marine mammals – deafened in the manner described above – become disorientated, calves become separated from their mothers and prone to fatal or mortal collisions with surface vessels – particularly those used in the construction of offshore turbines, cabling and other infrastructure.
Further, confused and disorientated whales are driven away from their natural feeding grounds by the noise generated underwater by sonic mapping and turbine construction and into areas where food is scarce, leaving them hungry, prone to disease, and liable to end up beached in shallow water.
The wind industry has been killing an increasing number of whales, dolphins and porpoises all along America’s Atlantic coast for years now – and doing so with complete impunity, thanks to US Federal government authorisations euphemistically called the ‘Incidental Harassment Authorization’.
Now the wind industry wants to repeat the slaughter in Australia, targeting its southern coastline, including the south-west coast of Western Australia and Victoria where, as detailed in the 2nd article, local Aboriginal groups are furious about the damage the proposed offshore wind industry will cause to whales and other marine mammals.
Federal government proposes wind farm in the middle of a whale migration route News.com Emma Kirk 9 April 2024
In what is believed to be a world first, the federal government has proposed developing an offshore wind farm in the middle of a whale super highway off Western Australia’s southwest coast.
Each year, tens of thousands of whales use the water in and around Geographe Bay on their annual migration to Antarctica.
The bay is described as a pristine marine ecosystem off Bunbury, about 168km south of Perth, and stretches 98km along the coastline to Cape Naturaliste, between Dunsborough and Yallingup.
The area is one of WA’s most popular tourist destinations and recreational playgrounds, with endless sandy beaches, turquoise waters and an abundance of marine life.
More than 30,000 humpback whales pass through Geographe Bay on their way south as they head towards their feeding grounds.
Endangered southern right whales use the bay to rest and nurse their calves.
The community is in disbelief that an offshore wind farm has been proposed in Geographe Bay and say there has been a lack of information and consultation from authorities.
Geographe Marine Research have monitored the movement of whales through the bay for years and believe a wind farm would be better located on land.
They recently started tagging blue whales in the area and have recorded whales outside the bay area using an acoustic data log, inside the proposed wind farm zone.
Geographe Bay Marine research board member Rodney Peterson said their concern was that the wind farm would be the world’s first in a whale migration route.
“No one can predict how the whales will react to that,” he said.
“It wasn’t that long ago that we nearly wiped whales off the planet.
“The blue whales and southern right populations haven’t come back like the humpbacks.
“We need to see more details about the wind farm and the area that is being proposed.
“The government has not come forward with any details and that is what’s lacking.
“They just need to come forward with research to show why this is a good area, although if they did the research, they would probably find it is not a good area.
“We nearly killed all these whales now we are going to do this to their migration path.”
In February, the federal government started seeking community feedback on the proposed wind farm area, which could span about 7674 sqkm
While the project is still in the early stages, if the area is approved by the federal and state governments, it could be located 20km to 70km off the populated coastline.
One of the proponents looking at the project is Copenhagen Energy, a Danish renewable energy developer, which is looking at up to 200 wind turbines operating in the proposed area.
Copenhagen Energy has submitted an application to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water based on their initial environmental, social and economic studies.
A self-proclaimed ocean rat and fourth generation diver Kyle Treloar said he “just loved the water” and shed a tear when he learnt about the proposed wind farm.
He started a group called Save Our Beloved Geographe Bay for the community to share information about the wind farm and images from beneath the sea because many people were unaware of the marine life that lived there.
“Some people are absolutely terrified, it is a way of life, it is business and tourism,” he said.
“We still shake our heads that this is a thing.
“I don’t know how you can put industrialisation over a pristine ecosystem the last thing we need is big spinning structures.”
Mr Treloar has been mapping the underwater environment to give people a better perspective of the marine ecosystem off the coast.
He said they had picked the biggest reef and coral system south of Mandurah.
“The government is willing to risk all this for something that benefits industry,” he said.
“The turbines proposed are 280m tall and 20km away, they have to put the turbines straight over the coral which has a lot of people upset.
“They have done no environmental impact (study), they just picked an area and haven’t looked at what’s at stake.
“When you talk about people’s recreational activities, the thought of losing that is diabolic.”
WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam said she shared community concerns about the lack of transparency surrounding the project and believed the consultation process so far has raised more questions than answers.
“The offshore wind farms will have a profound effect on our beautiful coastline and yet there are still many unanswered questions about the full impact it will have on the health and wellbeing of residents living in nearby coastal communities but also on whales, migratory birds and our fish stock,” she said.
“The recent community consultation sessions provided no constructive information or reassurance.
“Residents deserve open and transparent information about the impact of the project and it is not unreasonable to expect the federal government to be able to provide details by this stage of the planning process.
“I have met with southwest locals who are understandably outraged by the process so far, and I will continue to work alongside them to ensure this proposal does not go ahead.” News.com
‘Undermines our sovereignty’: Custodians speak out against wind farm zone The Standard Jessica Greenan 7 April 2024
The custodians of an area of sea country marked as an offshore wind farm zone off the south-west coast say the decision has shown “disregard for our voices”.
It comes as both the Gunditj Mirring and Eastern Maar Aboriginal corporations expressed their disappointment at the announcement made by Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen on March 6.
In a statement, Gunditj Mirring said there’d been a “complete lack of appropriate and meaningful consultation between the commonwealth government and the Gunditjmara community”.
“By excluding us from the decision-making process, the government has not only demonstrated a disregard for our voices, perspectives and rights, it has overlooked an opportunity to engage and learn the true value and history of our sea country from its traditional owners,” it said.
“Whilst GMTOAC supports the agenda for environmental protection and climate change, this decision undermines our sovereignty as land rights holders.”
The statement said the corporation had written two letters and a submission opposing the designated area and had highlighted the need for further independent research to assess the cultural and environmental impacts of such a designation.
Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation said in a statement it supported decarbonising traditional energy sources and understood the critical role it played in combating climate change.
“However we firmly believe that the pursuit of decarbonisation must not come at the expense of marine life that we are inextricably linked to,” it said.
The statement said the corporation had concerns about the impacts on the migratory paths, feeding grounds and nursery areas of the “highly endangered and culturally significant Koontapool (Southern Right whale) species that utilise the oceans and coastlines of south-west Victoria, as well as the globally significant ecosystems that support Koontapool”.
The statement said the declared area was made on the back of preliminary assessments rather than comprehensive environmental studies which was “concerning”.
“We believe that the environmental studies should not have been completed before the declaration of the area not at stage five as per the eight-stage process.”
It said the declaration should have been more comprehensive and the process of declaration should have deployed the services and involved the independent offshore regulator NOPSEMA (National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority).
Federal member for Wannon Dan Tehan said it was “beggars belief” Energy Minister Chris Bowen had not done the appropriate consultation with Gunditj Mirring.
“Given this failure to consult he should immediately rip up the declared zone and start the process again,” he said.” The Standard
Thanks to the offshore wind industry, it’s never been easier to get up close and personal with rare and endangered whales. Never before has the general public been able to walk along the shoreline and find their favourite beach routinely littered with a steady stream of cetacean carcasses. Call it ‘eco-tourism’, with a twist.
Some might cringe at the carnage, but the wind industry hasn’t a care in the world – long before they began spearing these things into the ocean, they sought and were granted government-backed licenses to (quite lawfully) kill an unlimited number of whales, porpoises and dolphins – aka the ‘Incidental Harassment Authorization’.
Under the witless Chris Bowen, Australia’s wind and solar obsessed Federal government is hell-bent on plugging thousands of these monstrosities off Australia’s coasts, notwithstanding the wholesale whale slaughter playing out along America’s Atlantic coast.
With that in mind, it’s timely to tap into the work of Michael Shellenberger, who has recently produced a half-hour documentary, Thrown To The Wind – that exposes the corrupt relationship between government and the wind industry – desperately designed to cover up the true cause of one the greatest environmental scandals, of all time.
We’ll start first with Shellenberger’s interview on Sky News, and leave you with the video of Thrown To The Wind.
Government offshore renewable projects at risk of killing marine life Sky News Outsiders 24 September 2023
Environmental policy expert Michael Shellenberger says offshore renewable projects are “very environmentally degrading technology” that is affecting marine life.
“Windmills are very old, these are hundreds of years old technologies; the wind itself has low energy density meaning you have to spread wind turbines over huge areas, that; ‘s why they keep building them so big,” Mr Shellenberger told Sky News host Rowan Dean.
“The preparation, the mapping of the ocean floor with sonar is so loud it’s actually in violation of the regulations by the US government the separations the mothers from their calf’s, it sent the whales into boat traffic.
“These impacts can be seen around the world; the east coast is very sensitive because it’s actually a very shallow waters on the offshore.
“I think you can expect to see very significant impacts in Australia and everywhere in the world, I think people don’t realise that the oceans are full of life and I think we sometimes miss the fact that it’s a really biodiverse important part of our planetary ecosystem.”
Transcript
Rohan Dean: The Albanese government’s green dream is in strife. Things are not going to plan. Residents near the proposed five gigawatt Hunter offshore wind farm zone are furious. Not only is it outrageously expensive, but it will kill our whales. Our next guest has delved deeply into this sad phenomenon in his documentary, Thrown to the Wind. Take a look.
Thrown to the wind: “I saw another whale had washed up and it’s becoming a pattern.” “It sounds like someone pile driving!” “What the United States is looking at is thousands of wind turbines in an area that our whales, our dolphins, our marine life…” “So those red dots are whale deaths?” “Precisely.” “What a scandal.”
Rohan Dean: Joining us now is the producer of that video, a great friend of Outsiders, Michael Shellenberger, author, journalist, and founder of the group, Environmental Progress. Michael, it’s always great to see you. Thanks for coming on Outsiders. The documentary about killing whales, it has landed at the right point in time here in Australia. We are embarking on a massive offshore wind program across some of our most beautiful Australian ocean sides. What do you make of it?
Michael Shellenberger: Well, it’s good to be with you, Rohan. And yeah, I mean, it’s a very environmentally degrading technology because you have to remember, windmills are very old. These are hundreds of years old technologies. The wind itself has low energy density, meaning you have to spread wind turbines over huge areas. That’s why they keep building them so big, as tall as the Eiffel Tower. What we have documented is just simply the preparation, the mapping of the ocean floor with sonar is so loud. It’s actually in violation of the regulations by the US government that separates the mothers from their calves. It sends the whales into boat traffic and also the wind industry is expanding boat traffic into areas where there wasn’t traffic. That’s what’s behind the deaths of these whales off the East Coast of the United States. Also, dolphins, all cetaceans. And these impacts can be seen around the world.
The East Coast is very sensitive because it’s actually very shallow waters on the offshore and there’s only 340 of these magnificent whales left. It’s the North Atlantic right whales. But I think you can expect to see very significant impacts in Australia and everywhere in the world. I think people don’t realise that the oceans are full of life, and I think we sometimes miss the fact that it’s a really biodiverse important part of our planetary ecosystem, and I think there’s also just a lot of mythology. I think people think that because it’s wind, it’s somehow more natural or better for the environment, but what the science shows is something very different. Massive ecological impacts from industrial wind turbines. And as I pointed out last week, we’re now seeing the impacts of wind turbines on pumas in Brazil, critically endangered, but also on eagles, other raptor species, including raptors in Australia, and bat species. These are huge, loud degrading devices, and so I would just say you really have to make sure because we’ve discovered that the government hasn’t done the research that it claimed it was doing in order to monitor and protect the whales.
Rohan Dean: James.
James Morrow: And Michael, you go further than that, and this is a great concern in Australia because we also have right whales that migrate up and down the East Coast every year. You can watch them from the cliffs at Bondi. You can see them go up the coast. You say that the government knew about these effects and has covered this up. Tell us about that and what does that tell us that we should be watching out for when the government here in Australia says, “This is clean, this is green, this has no impact. This is what we need. If we’re going to march on to net zero, whales be damned.”
Michael Shellenberger: Well, I think the first thing you have to remember is that environmental conservation organisations have been pointing out the impacts of sonar on whales for many decades. This is a very well-studied phenomenon. Two years ago, the big conservation organisations wrote an open letter warning of this particular project on this whale species. Last year, a top government scientists wrote a very unusual letter warning of extinction on the species. We have now sent multiple letters to the government pointing out that the applications for the permits to engage in this industrial activity themselves show that they’re in violation of the law. So it’s big money, huge taxpayer subsidies. Somewhere on the order of one third to two thirds of the cost of wind energy is subsidised by rate payers. The industry then funnels that money to the politicians who then put pressure on the regulators to not enforce these environmental laws.
They have this cover, this story that says that this is good for the environment. It’s bad for the environment. This is greenwashing like I’ve never seen before. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. This is the biggest environmental scandal I’ve ever seen or been involved with, and I’ve been involved in environmental causes for over 30 years. This is a critically endangered species that could go extinct because of this project, but I think that people in Australia also need to look closely at the documents. People can be in touch with me, by the way. We’ve now gotten pretty good at the science and also at helping to work with the independent scientists, so many of whom have been sold out and the conservation groups have sold out.
We also documented industry funding for news organisations, aquarium, Woods Hole. I mean, it’s shocking how much money is being spent basically to repress the best available science showing the imminent threat to these magnificent animals, spiritual animals, I should say. There’s a reason we care about whales, the songs, the love of the mothers for their calves, the ways in which they’re a communal species. All of the reasons that we’ve loved and protected whales for decades stand today. It’s more desperate than ever, particularly for the right whales.
Rohan Dean: And Michael, I’ll just point out to viewers, you were of course Time Magazine’s, Young Environmentalist of the Year several years ago, so you know exactly what you’re talking about when you talk about caring for the environment. Liz.
Liz Storer: Well, I was going to ask Michael, how you account for the fact that the government is blindly forging ahead despite all the research done by yourselves and others in this space, and how do you account for that? You’ve kind of already answered that by saying follow the money. Do you ascribe to the idea that that’s really all there is behind the veil of this green dream zero emissions. And what do you make, would you agree with Dr. Jordan Peterson’s assessment that this is an extremely anti-human species agenda that we’re seeing rollout?
Michael Shellenberger: Yeah, absolutely. I think the thing you have to remember is that the reason that wind energy is so expensive is the same reason it’s so bad for the environment, which is that it’s just really inefficient. Wind is very energy dilute. You have to spread the collection of energy over huge amounts of areas. You have to build these machines to be very tall, to have huge environmental impacts. At bottom, it is a kind of mania like a religion, climatism, which says that climate change is the only environmental problem. It is an environmental problem. It’s not the biggest environmental problem and what is more tragic than actually killing an entire species of whale out of, because people are in the grip of this religion. We have shut down more nuclear energy on the East Coast of the United States, closed more nuclear plants that produced more energy than all of the wind turbines will produce if they got them up and running.
So the big hope here is that the finances of these projects are absolutely awful. Even with one to two third subsidy, the wind industry is asking for more money for rate payers. So we’re at just high corruption at this point. I mean, it’s just a money grab by greedy politicians, by frankly greedy journalists, scientists, conservation groups. Many of them have really sold out. It’s been a small group of us that are independent scientists, researchers, advocates, and others that have been fighting this. But I think that Australians also have a really important role to play here. The projects that proposing Australia would be absolutely devastating. We’re here to be in solidarity. If folks in Australia want to reach out, michaelshellenberger@gmail.com, happy to give our assistance because this industry is an absolute nightmare for marine life, marine mammals, and for whales in particular. There’s a reason we care so much about these particular animals.
Rohan Dean: Michael Shellenberger, well said, you will be inundated. I’ll repeat that, michaelshellenberger@gmail.com. We know what a great job Michael has done on so many fronts. We’ll talk to you again soon in a couple of months because the nuclear debate is heating up here. Michael, you were out here in Australia talking to Australians about the need for nuclear to get to net zero. The liberal party is finally… looks like adopting that as their major policy going to the next election. So we’ll be chatting a lot more about that, but that’s yet another example, Michael, of the great work you have done for us here in Australia. Get ready for those emails on the whales. Thanks, Michael. Sky News
Here’s Michael’s documentary on the offshore wind industry’s utterly pointless and unnecessary marine mammal slaughter.
Thrown to the Wind YouTube Public News Video 14 September 2023
Global warming, climate change, all these things are just a dream come true for politicians. I deal with evidence and not with frightening computer models because the seeker after truth does not put his faith in any consensus. The road to the truth is long and hard, but this is the road we must follow. People who describe the unprecedented comfort and ease of modern life as a climate disaster, in my opinion have no idea what a real problem is.
We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. View more
Cookies settings
Accept
Privacy & Cookie policy
Privacy & Cookies policy
Cookies list
Cookie name
Active
Wer wir sind
Textvorschlag: Die Adresse unserer Website ist: https://climate-science.press.
Kommentare
Textvorschlag: Wenn Besucher Kommentare auf der Website schreiben, sammeln wir die Daten, die im Kommentar-Formular angezeigt werden, außerdem die IP-Adresse des Besuchers und den User-Agent-String (damit wird der Browser identifiziert), um die Erkennung von Spam zu unterstützen.
Aus deiner E-Mail-Adresse kann eine anonymisierte Zeichenfolge erstellt (auch Hash genannt) und dem Gravatar-Dienst übergeben werden, um zu prüfen, ob du diesen benutzt. Die Datenschutzerklärung des Gravatar-Dienstes findest du hier: https://automattic.com/privacy/. Nachdem dein Kommentar freigegeben wurde, ist dein Profilbild öffentlich im Kontext deines Kommentars sichtbar.
Medien
Textvorschlag: Wenn du ein registrierter Benutzer bist und Fotos auf diese Website lädst, solltest du vermeiden, Fotos mit einem EXIF-GPS-Standort hochzuladen. Besucher dieser Website könnten Fotos, die auf dieser Website gespeichert sind, herunterladen und deren Standort-Informationen extrahieren.
Cookies
Textvorschlag: Wenn du einen Kommentar auf unserer Website schreibst, kann das eine Einwilligung sein, deinen Namen, E-Mail-Adresse und Website in Cookies zu speichern. Dies ist eine Komfortfunktion, damit du nicht, wenn du einen weiteren Kommentar schreibst, all diese Daten erneut eingeben musst. Diese Cookies werden ein Jahr lang gespeichert.
Falls du ein Konto hast und dich auf dieser Website anmeldest, werden wir ein temporäres Cookie setzen, um festzustellen, ob dein Browser Cookies akzeptiert. Dieses Cookie enthält keine personenbezogenen Daten und wird verworfen, wenn du deinen Browser schließt.
Wenn du dich anmeldest, werden wir einige Cookies einrichten, um deine Anmeldeinformationen und Anzeigeoptionen zu speichern. Anmelde-Cookies verfallen nach zwei Tagen und Cookies für die Anzeigeoptionen nach einem Jahr. Falls du bei der Anmeldung „Angemeldet bleiben“ auswählst, wird deine Anmeldung zwei Wochen lang aufrechterhalten. Mit der Abmeldung aus deinem Konto werden die Anmelde-Cookies gelöscht.
Wenn du einen Artikel bearbeitest oder veröffentlichst, wird ein zusätzlicher Cookie in deinem Browser gespeichert. Dieser Cookie enthält keine personenbezogenen Daten und verweist nur auf die Beitrags-ID des Artikels, den du gerade bearbeitet hast. Der Cookie verfällt nach einem Tag.
Eingebettete Inhalte von anderen Websites
Textvorschlag: Beiträge auf dieser Website können eingebettete Inhalte beinhalten (z. B. Videos, Bilder, Beiträge etc.). Eingebettete Inhalte von anderen Websites verhalten sich exakt so, als ob der Besucher die andere Website besucht hätte.
Diese Websites können Daten über dich sammeln, Cookies benutzen, zusätzliche Tracking-Dienste von Dritten einbetten und deine Interaktion mit diesem eingebetteten Inhalt aufzeichnen, inklusive deiner Interaktion mit dem eingebetteten Inhalt, falls du ein Konto hast und auf dieser Website angemeldet bist.
Mit wem wir deine Daten teilen
Textvorschlag: Wenn du eine Zurücksetzung des Passworts beantragst, wird deine IP-Adresse in der E-Mail zur Zurücksetzung enthalten sein.
Wie lange wir deine Daten speichern
Textvorschlag: Wenn du einen Kommentar schreibst, wird dieser inklusive Metadaten zeitlich unbegrenzt gespeichert. Auf diese Art können wir Folgekommentare automatisch erkennen und freigeben, anstatt sie in einer Moderations-Warteschlange festzuhalten.
Für Benutzer, die sich auf unserer Website registrieren, speichern wir zusätzlich die persönlichen Informationen, die sie in ihren Benutzerprofilen angeben. Alle Benutzer können jederzeit ihre persönlichen Informationen einsehen, verändern oder löschen (der Benutzername kann nicht verändert werden). Administratoren der Website können diese Informationen ebenfalls einsehen und verändern.
Welche Rechte du an deinen Daten hast
Textvorschlag: Wenn du ein Konto auf dieser Website besitzt oder Kommentare geschrieben hast, kannst du einen Export deiner personenbezogenen Daten bei uns anfordern, inklusive aller Daten, die du uns mitgeteilt hast. Darüber hinaus kannst du die Löschung aller personenbezogenen Daten, die wir von dir gespeichert haben, anfordern. Dies umfasst nicht die Daten, die wir aufgrund administrativer, rechtlicher oder sicherheitsrelevanter Notwendigkeiten aufbewahren müssen.
Wohin deine Daten gesendet werden
Textvorschlag: Besucher-Kommentare könnten von einem automatisierten Dienst zur Spam-Erkennung untersucht werden.
