GlobalData
"Reality 'fraying' Biden climate agenda – report"
Story by Graeme Roberts
28 NOVEMBER 2023
Economic reality, such as cancelled offshore wind projects, imperiled solar factories and falling demand for electric vehicles was "fraying" US president Joe Biden’s agenda a year after passage of the largest climate change legislation in US history intended to touch off a boom in American clean energy development, a Reuters report said.
Soaring financing and materials costs, unreliable supply chains, delayed law making in Washington and sluggish permitting have wrought havoc ranging from offshore wind developer Orsted’s project cancellations in the US north east, to Tesla, Ford and GM’s scaled back EV manufacturing plans, the news agency said.
The "darkening outlook for clean energy industries" was seen as tough news for Biden, whose pledge to deliver a net zero economy by 2050 faced headwinds which that landmark (IRA) Inflation Reduction Act's billions in tax credits alone could not resolve, Reuters said.
After touting his IRA as evidence of unprecedented progress in the fight against climate change at the 2022 United Nations climate summit in Egypt, Biden was expected to miss this year’s event in Dubai amid dire warnings the world was moving too slowly to avoid the worst of global warming, the news agency report added.
Clean energy experts interviewed by Reuters said mounting setbacks would make the US' ambitious targets to decarbonise by mid-century even harder to reach.
"While we see healthy numbers being deployed each and every quarter and we're continuing to be on a growth path, it's certainly not at the level required to hit some of those targets," John Hensley, vice president for the clean energy trade group American Clean Power Association (ACP), was quoted as saying.
The dynamics of soaring costs and broken supply chains were also slamming projects in other regions.
No major nation was on track to meet the emissions reduction goals outlined in the United Nations' Paris accord, which aimed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, Reuters reported, citing Wood Mackenzie.
A White House official told Reuters that, while there had been macroeconomic setbacks and bottlenecks at the local level to renewable energy deployment, there were plenty of examples of progress, including an expanding EV market and Dominion Energy making progress on the nation’s largest offshore wind farm off the Virginia coast.
“In the face of headwinds that are macro in nature, headwinds that affect decision making across the economy, this has been a resilient trajectory," White House national climate advisor Ali Zaidi reportedly said in an interview, adding the US would achieve its climate goals.
The Reuters report also detailed delayed clean power projects, two thirds of which were solar energy facilities, issues with the use of forced labour and tariff dodging in the China dominated solar panel supply chain plus grid connection process delays averaging five years (a similar issue is affecting some planned UK EV recharging infrastructure projects - ed].
"In a number of areas investment has increased," Prakash Sharma, vice president of scenarios and technologies at Wood Mackenzie told Reuters.
"But then, when it comes to some of those permitting and approvals that are required to push projects forward, or infrastructure development, that's an issue which IRA cannot solve."
All that said, the US could be proud of how it was tackling climate change, particularly when compared with the Trump administration's relatively recent efforts to roll back policies that protect the climate, Dan Reicher, a scholar at Stanford University, told Reuters.
"These are the normal ups and downs of clean energy development and deployment," Reicher said.
"I think we can go to COP with our chin held high that we're making some real progress."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/reali ... 6a39&ei=12
WINDMILLS AND SOLAR FARMS
Re: WINDMILLS AND SOLAR FARMS
Bloomberg
"A $30 Billion Meltdown in Clean Energy Puts Biden’s Climate Goals at Risk"
Story by David R Baker, Saijel Kishan and Jennifer A Dlouhy
30 NOVEMBER 2023
(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- No one expected the transition from fossil fuels to be easy.
But a year after President Joe Biden’s landmark climate law promised billions of dollars for America’s switch to clean energy, some of the nation’s most ambitious renewable power projects have been shelved, electric car sales are missing targets and investors are fleeing the sector in droves.
The result is a $30 billion collapse in US clean energy stocks in the last six months — a market many investors expected to flourish in the aftermath of the law’s passage.
Few industries have been unscathed by soaring interest rates, but perhaps none has been harder hit than renewable energy.
For a sector that builds big, expensive facilities such as solar plants and wind farms, high rates cut profit margins enough to sink projects and bankrupt companies.
The giddy enthusiasm that followed the Inflation Reduction Act’s passage evaporated, wiping out a quarter of the market value of US companies in the S&P Global Clean Energy Index in the six months ended Nov. 27.
It’s a meltdown that underscores the obstacles standing in the way of Biden’s ambitious climate goals.
Along with sky-high financing costs, clean energy companies face the problems of winning over potential neighbors for their projects, securing government permits and plugging into a creaky power grid unable to handle all the renewable power that’s planned.
Oil and gas producers, meanwhile, are doubling down on plans to keep pumping.
The warnings are clear: America’s road to achieving a zero-carbon electricity grid by 2035 is getting rockier by the day.
“We’re in the moment of realization now where some of the euphoria has worn off and we’re starting to realize it’s still not going to be easy,” says Eric Scheriff, senior managing director at Capstone, a Washington, DC-based consulting firm.
The specter of bankruptcies now haunts the sector.
Electric bus maker Proterra Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection earlier this year, with solar financing firm Sunlight Financial Holdings Inc. following soon after.
Deals are falling apart: Private equity-backed Ares Acquisition Corp. abandoned its planned merger with nuclear power technology company X-Energy Reactor Co. in October.
And projects have been canceled: Utility owner Avangrid Inc. shelved wind projects in Connecticut and Massachusetts this year, while NuScale Power Corp. abruptly terminated its plans for the first small modular reactor in the US — a technology seen as key to the sector’s potential revival.
For anyone who remembers the last cleantech bust more than a decade ago, it’s easy to fear a repeat.
“In the final analysis, green investing has to be based on economic realities,” says Jerome Dodson, the now-retired founder of Parnassus Investments, one of the world’s largest sustainable investment firms, with $42 billion in assets.
He sold his stake in the business in 2021 — at the “top of the market,” as he puts it — and predicts that wind and solar stocks could fall an additional 15% to 20% in the next six to eight months.
It was only two years ago that Wall Street investors and bankers headed to Scotland for a global climate meeting, waxing lyrical about net-zero emissions goals and the profits to be made from the shift to cleaner energy.
That’s a stark contrast to the current mood as the world convenes again for climate talks at the COP28 summit this week in Dubai.
American clean energy companies aren’t the only ones struggling.
China’s biggest solar and wind turbine manufacturers recently reported shrinking profits.
A fault in thousands of wind turbines forced Siemens Energy AG to seek a €15 billion ($16.2 billion) backstop led by the German government.
And Danish wind developer Orsted A/S is fighting to recover from a $4 billion writedown stemming from two abandoned US wind projects.
In many ways, though, the problems are most surprising in the US.
Biden’s sweeping climate law offers at least $374 billion in tax credits and other incentives to spur the energy transition.
Many saw it as a grand experiment to test whether subsidies, rather than top-down government mandates, would be enough to accelerate a change the planet desperately needs.
Instead, the US remains far off track for reaching Biden’s goal of a net-zero economy by 2050.
Researchers at BloombergNEF estimate the IRA will get the country only halfway there, cutting annual greenhouse gas emissions from 5.3 gigatons to 2.3 gigatons by midcentury.
Most analysts don’t expect clean energy’s current difficulties to completely derail the transition.
Lawmakers remain committed to the shift, even if the results of their actions to date have fallen far short of their goals.
Corporations are also lining up clean energy supplies for their offices and data centers.
But missing targets will still have major implications for the planet and the global economy, as the extreme weather events that are propelled and magnified by climate change continue to cause enormous damage.
The US is the biggest carbon emitter of all time, responsible for about a quarter of historical greenhouse gases, and it holds the No. 2 spot for today’s levels.
It has also been seen as one of the biggest offenders in rich nations’ failure to collectively marshal funds to the developing countries that often experience climate change’s worst impacts.
While Bank of America Corp. analysts estimate the global cost for confronting climate destruction will be roughly $75 trillion — or $2.7 trillion a year — between now and 2050, the price tag for inaction is much higher.
Doing nothing to address extreme heat, disasters and rising sea levels brings an expense of $178 trillion, the analysts wrote in a recent report.
“My nervousness is that we have high interest rates for a long time, and that slows the transition,” says Chat Reynders, co-founder of Reynders, McVeigh Capital Management, which oversees $3.5 billion in Boston.
While the International Energy Agency recently predicted for the first time that global demand for oil will peak this decade, it also said that “an undulating plateau lasting for many years” will follow, with emissions remaining too high to limit global warming to 1.5C, a critical tipping point for averting more extreme consequences of global warming.
For its part, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries predicts oil demand will keep growing for decades.
Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. just spent more than $110 billion combined on two megadeals to secure future oil production.
“The timeline we have to get to net-zero is quite short,” says Garvin Jabusch, chief investment officer at Green Alpha Advisors, which oversees about $400 million.
“Everything that’s invested in new exploration, new discovery, new extraction, new burning, new internal combustion engines, new fossil-fired electricity plants — all these long-life assets — puts us much further away from any climate goals.”
Nowhere are the problems facing clean energy more apparent than in the offshore wind industry.
Biden’s climate plans call for building enough wind farms along the nation’s coasts in the next six years to generate 30 gigawatts of electricity, roughly the output of 30 nuclear reactors.
But wind developers have seen their component costs rise as inflation ripples through their supply chains.
High interest rates compound the problem.
Over the next decade, surging costs threaten to add about $280 billion in capital expenditures for the global offshore wind sector, according to researchers at consulting firm EY.
Both BloombergNEF and S&P Global Commodity Insights have lowered their projections on how much wind can be added to the grid by 2030.
There are also hurdles in the switch to electric transportation.
Higher borrowing costs have made electric vehicles even more expensive, dampening sales.
Tesla Inc. has seen its stock price tumble about 20% from its 52-week high in July.
The companies that deploy EV chargers, such as Blink Charging Co. and ChargePoint Holdings Inc., are nearing penny-stock status.
ChargePoint shares plummeted in November after posting a preliminary revenue miss and replacing its longtime chief executive officer.
Biden has grand plans for hydrogen, meanwhile, casting it as a clean-burning fuel that can decarbonize heavy industries such as steel and shipping.
Companies such as Plug Power Inc. are building hydrogen production plants, but potential users have been slow to sign supply deals, since switching from natural gas to hydrogen usually means installing expensive new equipment.
In mid-November, Plug Power issued a going-concern warning, an accounting term that means the business may be illiquid within 12 months.
There are some bright spots, including large-scale solar.
Panel costs have been dropping, which squeezes margins for equipment makers but can help increase the speed of installations.
Researchers at BNEF estimate that installed capacity jumped more than 50% this year to a new record.
Falling panel costs will also help drive growth for home installations, according to the researchers.
Funding for climate tech rose to the highest rate in almost two years in the third quarter, according to BNEF.
And BlackRock Inc. CEO Larry Fink, who’s been a vocal proponent of embedding environmental objectives in investment decisions, is attending climate talks in Dubai after sitting them out last year, as green investing faced backlash from Republican lawmakers.
“The trends remain in favor of clean energy, even if we’re seeing some minor growing pains at the moment,” says Sonia Aggarwal, CEO of consulting firm Energy Innovation, who helped develop the IRA while serving as a special assistant to President Biden.
Nevertheless, even with federal support and expectations that interest rates will fall next year, big obstacles remain.
Take, for example, the US grid.
The energy transition requires vast changes to the interconnected networks of generating plants, transmission lines and substations that make up the grid, which is still designed largely for fossil fuel generation.
BNEF estimates the global cost of adapting and expanding grids to meet net-zero needs at around $21.4 trillion.
And there’s a massive bottleneck when it comes to the process for approving additions of power to grids.
In August more than 1,700GW of wind and solar power projects were stuck in approval queues across the US, according to a federal estimate.
“You need all of the ingredients to make the cake,” Capstone’s Scheriff says.
“We gained a few ingredients we needed with the IRA, but we’ve still got to get the others.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/a- ... 247f&ei=30
"A $30 Billion Meltdown in Clean Energy Puts Biden’s Climate Goals at Risk"
Story by David R Baker, Saijel Kishan and Jennifer A Dlouhy
30 NOVEMBER 2023
(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- No one expected the transition from fossil fuels to be easy.
But a year after President Joe Biden’s landmark climate law promised billions of dollars for America’s switch to clean energy, some of the nation’s most ambitious renewable power projects have been shelved, electric car sales are missing targets and investors are fleeing the sector in droves.
The result is a $30 billion collapse in US clean energy stocks in the last six months — a market many investors expected to flourish in the aftermath of the law’s passage.
Few industries have been unscathed by soaring interest rates, but perhaps none has been harder hit than renewable energy.
For a sector that builds big, expensive facilities such as solar plants and wind farms, high rates cut profit margins enough to sink projects and bankrupt companies.
The giddy enthusiasm that followed the Inflation Reduction Act’s passage evaporated, wiping out a quarter of the market value of US companies in the S&P Global Clean Energy Index in the six months ended Nov. 27.
It’s a meltdown that underscores the obstacles standing in the way of Biden’s ambitious climate goals.
Along with sky-high financing costs, clean energy companies face the problems of winning over potential neighbors for their projects, securing government permits and plugging into a creaky power grid unable to handle all the renewable power that’s planned.
Oil and gas producers, meanwhile, are doubling down on plans to keep pumping.
The warnings are clear: America’s road to achieving a zero-carbon electricity grid by 2035 is getting rockier by the day.
“We’re in the moment of realization now where some of the euphoria has worn off and we’re starting to realize it’s still not going to be easy,” says Eric Scheriff, senior managing director at Capstone, a Washington, DC-based consulting firm.
The specter of bankruptcies now haunts the sector.
Electric bus maker Proterra Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection earlier this year, with solar financing firm Sunlight Financial Holdings Inc. following soon after.
Deals are falling apart: Private equity-backed Ares Acquisition Corp. abandoned its planned merger with nuclear power technology company X-Energy Reactor Co. in October.
And projects have been canceled: Utility owner Avangrid Inc. shelved wind projects in Connecticut and Massachusetts this year, while NuScale Power Corp. abruptly terminated its plans for the first small modular reactor in the US — a technology seen as key to the sector’s potential revival.
For anyone who remembers the last cleantech bust more than a decade ago, it’s easy to fear a repeat.
“In the final analysis, green investing has to be based on economic realities,” says Jerome Dodson, the now-retired founder of Parnassus Investments, one of the world’s largest sustainable investment firms, with $42 billion in assets.
He sold his stake in the business in 2021 — at the “top of the market,” as he puts it — and predicts that wind and solar stocks could fall an additional 15% to 20% in the next six to eight months.
It was only two years ago that Wall Street investors and bankers headed to Scotland for a global climate meeting, waxing lyrical about net-zero emissions goals and the profits to be made from the shift to cleaner energy.
That’s a stark contrast to the current mood as the world convenes again for climate talks at the COP28 summit this week in Dubai.
American clean energy companies aren’t the only ones struggling.
China’s biggest solar and wind turbine manufacturers recently reported shrinking profits.
A fault in thousands of wind turbines forced Siemens Energy AG to seek a €15 billion ($16.2 billion) backstop led by the German government.
And Danish wind developer Orsted A/S is fighting to recover from a $4 billion writedown stemming from two abandoned US wind projects.
In many ways, though, the problems are most surprising in the US.
Biden’s sweeping climate law offers at least $374 billion in tax credits and other incentives to spur the energy transition.
Many saw it as a grand experiment to test whether subsidies, rather than top-down government mandates, would be enough to accelerate a change the planet desperately needs.
Instead, the US remains far off track for reaching Biden’s goal of a net-zero economy by 2050.
Researchers at BloombergNEF estimate the IRA will get the country only halfway there, cutting annual greenhouse gas emissions from 5.3 gigatons to 2.3 gigatons by midcentury.
Most analysts don’t expect clean energy’s current difficulties to completely derail the transition.
Lawmakers remain committed to the shift, even if the results of their actions to date have fallen far short of their goals.
Corporations are also lining up clean energy supplies for their offices and data centers.
But missing targets will still have major implications for the planet and the global economy, as the extreme weather events that are propelled and magnified by climate change continue to cause enormous damage.
The US is the biggest carbon emitter of all time, responsible for about a quarter of historical greenhouse gases, and it holds the No. 2 spot for today’s levels.
It has also been seen as one of the biggest offenders in rich nations’ failure to collectively marshal funds to the developing countries that often experience climate change’s worst impacts.
While Bank of America Corp. analysts estimate the global cost for confronting climate destruction will be roughly $75 trillion — or $2.7 trillion a year — between now and 2050, the price tag for inaction is much higher.
Doing nothing to address extreme heat, disasters and rising sea levels brings an expense of $178 trillion, the analysts wrote in a recent report.
“My nervousness is that we have high interest rates for a long time, and that slows the transition,” says Chat Reynders, co-founder of Reynders, McVeigh Capital Management, which oversees $3.5 billion in Boston.
While the International Energy Agency recently predicted for the first time that global demand for oil will peak this decade, it also said that “an undulating plateau lasting for many years” will follow, with emissions remaining too high to limit global warming to 1.5C, a critical tipping point for averting more extreme consequences of global warming.
For its part, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries predicts oil demand will keep growing for decades.
Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. just spent more than $110 billion combined on two megadeals to secure future oil production.
“The timeline we have to get to net-zero is quite short,” says Garvin Jabusch, chief investment officer at Green Alpha Advisors, which oversees about $400 million.
“Everything that’s invested in new exploration, new discovery, new extraction, new burning, new internal combustion engines, new fossil-fired electricity plants — all these long-life assets — puts us much further away from any climate goals.”
Nowhere are the problems facing clean energy more apparent than in the offshore wind industry.
Biden’s climate plans call for building enough wind farms along the nation’s coasts in the next six years to generate 30 gigawatts of electricity, roughly the output of 30 nuclear reactors.
But wind developers have seen their component costs rise as inflation ripples through their supply chains.
High interest rates compound the problem.
Over the next decade, surging costs threaten to add about $280 billion in capital expenditures for the global offshore wind sector, according to researchers at consulting firm EY.
Both BloombergNEF and S&P Global Commodity Insights have lowered their projections on how much wind can be added to the grid by 2030.
There are also hurdles in the switch to electric transportation.
Higher borrowing costs have made electric vehicles even more expensive, dampening sales.
Tesla Inc. has seen its stock price tumble about 20% from its 52-week high in July.
The companies that deploy EV chargers, such as Blink Charging Co. and ChargePoint Holdings Inc., are nearing penny-stock status.
ChargePoint shares plummeted in November after posting a preliminary revenue miss and replacing its longtime chief executive officer.
Biden has grand plans for hydrogen, meanwhile, casting it as a clean-burning fuel that can decarbonize heavy industries such as steel and shipping.
Companies such as Plug Power Inc. are building hydrogen production plants, but potential users have been slow to sign supply deals, since switching from natural gas to hydrogen usually means installing expensive new equipment.
In mid-November, Plug Power issued a going-concern warning, an accounting term that means the business may be illiquid within 12 months.
There are some bright spots, including large-scale solar.
Panel costs have been dropping, which squeezes margins for equipment makers but can help increase the speed of installations.
Researchers at BNEF estimate that installed capacity jumped more than 50% this year to a new record.
Falling panel costs will also help drive growth for home installations, according to the researchers.
Funding for climate tech rose to the highest rate in almost two years in the third quarter, according to BNEF.
And BlackRock Inc. CEO Larry Fink, who’s been a vocal proponent of embedding environmental objectives in investment decisions, is attending climate talks in Dubai after sitting them out last year, as green investing faced backlash from Republican lawmakers.
“The trends remain in favor of clean energy, even if we’re seeing some minor growing pains at the moment,” says Sonia Aggarwal, CEO of consulting firm Energy Innovation, who helped develop the IRA while serving as a special assistant to President Biden.
Nevertheless, even with federal support and expectations that interest rates will fall next year, big obstacles remain.
Take, for example, the US grid.
The energy transition requires vast changes to the interconnected networks of generating plants, transmission lines and substations that make up the grid, which is still designed largely for fossil fuel generation.
BNEF estimates the global cost of adapting and expanding grids to meet net-zero needs at around $21.4 trillion.
And there’s a massive bottleneck when it comes to the process for approving additions of power to grids.
In August more than 1,700GW of wind and solar power projects were stuck in approval queues across the US, according to a federal estimate.
“You need all of the ingredients to make the cake,” Capstone’s Scheriff says.
“We gained a few ingredients we needed with the IRA, but we’ve still got to get the others.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/a- ... 247f&ei=30
Re: WINDMILLS AND SOLAR FARMS
FOX NEWS
"Michigan Gov Whitmer signs sweeping green energy bill forcing transition from fossil fuels"
Story by Thomas Catenacci
30 NOVEMBER 2023
Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a landmark legislative package that requires state power providers to meet some of the most aggressive green energy goals in the country.
Whitmer was joined by fellow state Democrats, climate activists and industry stakeholders during a ceremony Tuesday where she signed the seven green energy bills that aim to reduce Michigan's reliance on fossil fuels and improve environmental quality statewide.
The topline target mandated under the so-called Clean Energy Future plan is a 100% clean energy standard that must be met within two decades.
"Once I sign these bills, Michigan becomes a national leader on clean energy, bringing billions of federal tax dollars home and private investment into our communities," Whitmer remarked before signing the legislation.
"Together, we are protecting our air, our water and our land while focusing on tackling climate change head on."
"Today is a huge win for Michigan families, for Michigan businesses, and for future generations of Michiganders."
"Our clean energy future is ambitious, but it is achievable," she continued.
"I have no doubt that, if we pursue this wholeheartedly, we can get it done because, in Michigan, we're not afraid of hard things."
"We have defied and defined history so many times before, and I know we are up to it again."
"We will lead the clean energy future because we have the workforce, and now the legislation, to foster strong economic growth."
Senate Bill 271, one of the bills included in the package, establishes a renewable energy standard of 50% by 2030 and 60% by 2035, meaning electric utilities meet at least that share of their electric generation capacity with renewable energy credits or direct renewable energy generation.
That mandate supersedes previous laws requiring utilities to achieve a 15% renewable energy standard through 2029.
In addition, under the bill, utility providers must meet an 80% clean energy standard by 2035 and a 100% clean energy standard set to be achieved by 2040.
The clean energy standard would include natural gas-fired generation with 90% carbon capture, a nascent and expensive technology that hasn't been deployed at any power plant nationwide.
And the Michigan Clean Energy Future plan transfers permitting authority for large-scale green energy projects from local control to Michigan Public Service Commission, the state regulator.
The move would ensure such projects move forward over widespread local opposition.
The Michigan state Senate ultimately approved the package late last month and the state House of Representatives subsequently passed it earlier this month.
The legislation was passed by slim majorities in both chambers, which are both simultaneously under Democratic control for the first time since the 1980s.
"Let's face it, Gov. Whitmer is trying to build her national profile with the Democrat Party," Michigan House Republican Leader Matt Hall told Fox News Digital in an interview.
"I think in order for her to build her brand with the far left and the Democrat Party, she felt she had to try to one up them here in Michigan."
He noted that Whitmer originally proposed a ban on natural gas and full renewable energy standard by 2035, a proposal that was ultimately watered down in the bills she signed Tuesday.
"There is no fuel source that we have that's as clean and efficient, reliable and affordable as natural gas," Hall continued.
"When you're replacing that artificially with other sources of energy that are just not as efficient, they take huge capital costs and you have to build a lot more of them to get the same power, that cost gets passed on to the ratepayers of the state, which are manufacturers, they're small businesses and they're individuals."
"They're going to see their energy bills go up."
Under the Clean Energy Future plan, the average monthly electric bill would be nearly double the current average in coming decades, according to a recent report from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free market think tank which analyzed the package of energy bills.
The report further warns that overall grid reliability would be severely diminished under the plan.
"The biggest thing is prices are going to go up, reliability is going to go way down and people are going to be left sitting in the cold in Michigan in January, like our modeling shows, for as much as 61 hours without electric service because of these plans," Jason Hayes, the Mackinac Center's director of energy and environmental policy and one of the report's authors, previously told Fox News Digital.
"Where if we decided to do it with reliable sources of energy like fossil fuels, we could do it for far less and avoid those outages, avoid the blackouts."
"So, to me, it seems a no-brainer."
"We should be doing it for less money and more reliability," he continued.
Hayes added that the intermittent nature of solar and wind, meaning they produce less power relative to their total generation capacity, could create instability.
Green energy developers and government officials often highlight total capacity of new renewable power projects, but fail to mention how much actual power the project is expected to produce.
Solar panels, for example, produce just 25% and wind turbines produce 34% of their listed capacity, according to federal data.
Coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants, meanwhile, produce 49%, 54% and 93% of their listed capacity, respectively.
Meanwhile, according to Energy Information Administration data reviewed by Fox News Digital, Michigan routinely ranks among the top five states in residential use of natural gas and in the top 10 for total natural gas consumption.
More than 75% of Michigan residents rely on natural gas as their primary source for home heating.
Natural gas-fired power plants produce by far the largest share of the state's electricity, the most recent data showed, followed by nuclear energy and coal-fired power.
By comparison, solar and wind power collectively produce just 8.1% of the state's electricity.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/michi ... 247f&ei=36
"Michigan Gov Whitmer signs sweeping green energy bill forcing transition from fossil fuels"
Story by Thomas Catenacci
30 NOVEMBER 2023
Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a landmark legislative package that requires state power providers to meet some of the most aggressive green energy goals in the country.
Whitmer was joined by fellow state Democrats, climate activists and industry stakeholders during a ceremony Tuesday where she signed the seven green energy bills that aim to reduce Michigan's reliance on fossil fuels and improve environmental quality statewide.
The topline target mandated under the so-called Clean Energy Future plan is a 100% clean energy standard that must be met within two decades.
"Once I sign these bills, Michigan becomes a national leader on clean energy, bringing billions of federal tax dollars home and private investment into our communities," Whitmer remarked before signing the legislation.
"Together, we are protecting our air, our water and our land while focusing on tackling climate change head on."
"Today is a huge win for Michigan families, for Michigan businesses, and for future generations of Michiganders."
"Our clean energy future is ambitious, but it is achievable," she continued.
"I have no doubt that, if we pursue this wholeheartedly, we can get it done because, in Michigan, we're not afraid of hard things."
"We have defied and defined history so many times before, and I know we are up to it again."
"We will lead the clean energy future because we have the workforce, and now the legislation, to foster strong economic growth."
Senate Bill 271, one of the bills included in the package, establishes a renewable energy standard of 50% by 2030 and 60% by 2035, meaning electric utilities meet at least that share of their electric generation capacity with renewable energy credits or direct renewable energy generation.
That mandate supersedes previous laws requiring utilities to achieve a 15% renewable energy standard through 2029.
In addition, under the bill, utility providers must meet an 80% clean energy standard by 2035 and a 100% clean energy standard set to be achieved by 2040.
The clean energy standard would include natural gas-fired generation with 90% carbon capture, a nascent and expensive technology that hasn't been deployed at any power plant nationwide.
And the Michigan Clean Energy Future plan transfers permitting authority for large-scale green energy projects from local control to Michigan Public Service Commission, the state regulator.
The move would ensure such projects move forward over widespread local opposition.
The Michigan state Senate ultimately approved the package late last month and the state House of Representatives subsequently passed it earlier this month.
The legislation was passed by slim majorities in both chambers, which are both simultaneously under Democratic control for the first time since the 1980s.
"Let's face it, Gov. Whitmer is trying to build her national profile with the Democrat Party," Michigan House Republican Leader Matt Hall told Fox News Digital in an interview.
"I think in order for her to build her brand with the far left and the Democrat Party, she felt she had to try to one up them here in Michigan."
He noted that Whitmer originally proposed a ban on natural gas and full renewable energy standard by 2035, a proposal that was ultimately watered down in the bills she signed Tuesday.
"There is no fuel source that we have that's as clean and efficient, reliable and affordable as natural gas," Hall continued.
"When you're replacing that artificially with other sources of energy that are just not as efficient, they take huge capital costs and you have to build a lot more of them to get the same power, that cost gets passed on to the ratepayers of the state, which are manufacturers, they're small businesses and they're individuals."
"They're going to see their energy bills go up."
Under the Clean Energy Future plan, the average monthly electric bill would be nearly double the current average in coming decades, according to a recent report from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free market think tank which analyzed the package of energy bills.
The report further warns that overall grid reliability would be severely diminished under the plan.
"The biggest thing is prices are going to go up, reliability is going to go way down and people are going to be left sitting in the cold in Michigan in January, like our modeling shows, for as much as 61 hours without electric service because of these plans," Jason Hayes, the Mackinac Center's director of energy and environmental policy and one of the report's authors, previously told Fox News Digital.
"Where if we decided to do it with reliable sources of energy like fossil fuels, we could do it for far less and avoid those outages, avoid the blackouts."
"So, to me, it seems a no-brainer."
"We should be doing it for less money and more reliability," he continued.
Hayes added that the intermittent nature of solar and wind, meaning they produce less power relative to their total generation capacity, could create instability.
Green energy developers and government officials often highlight total capacity of new renewable power projects, but fail to mention how much actual power the project is expected to produce.
Solar panels, for example, produce just 25% and wind turbines produce 34% of their listed capacity, according to federal data.
Coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants, meanwhile, produce 49%, 54% and 93% of their listed capacity, respectively.
Meanwhile, according to Energy Information Administration data reviewed by Fox News Digital, Michigan routinely ranks among the top five states in residential use of natural gas and in the top 10 for total natural gas consumption.
More than 75% of Michigan residents rely on natural gas as their primary source for home heating.
Natural gas-fired power plants produce by far the largest share of the state's electricity, the most recent data showed, followed by nuclear energy and coal-fired power.
By comparison, solar and wind power collectively produce just 8.1% of the state's electricity.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/michi ... 247f&ei=36
Re: WINDMILLS AND SOLAR FARMS
State Of The Union
"Biden Admin Caught Red-Handed Skipping Taxpayer Safeguard To Push Through Green Energy Project"
Story by Jordan Andrews
1 DECEMBER 2023
The Biden administration granted a waiver to an energy firm developing an offshore wind project off the coast of Massachusetts, exempting them from paying development fees intended to protect taxpayers.
The decision has raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, as the former Deputy Interior Secretary had previously provided legal services to the energy firm.
“At the same time the Department of the Interior was looking at forcing greater and more expensive bonding requirements on holders of long-standing oil and gas leases, they were relaxing these requirements on the nation’s first utility-scale offshore wind energy producer, one that just coincidentally happened to be a client of their incoming #2,” PPT Director Michael Chamberlain said.
“If you want to talk about bad optics, I don’t see how they could be any worse than right here,” he added.
“For an administration touting itself as the most ethical in history, this represents yet another incident in which Secretary Haaland’s Interior appears to have a tough time living up to that standard.”
The waiver was approved despite the Trump administration’s prior rejection of the request.
The project, Vineyard Wind 1, has been fast-tracked, receiving federal approval and support from the Biden administration.
“Vineyard Wind 1 represents a historic milestone for advancing our nation’s clean energy production."
"This project and others across the country will create robust and sustainable economies that lift up communities and support good-paying jobs, while also ensuring future generations have a livable planet,” Haaland said in 2021.
“The Interior Department is committed to responsibly accelerating our nation’s transition to a clean energy future, and doing so in coordination with our partners, stakeholders, Tribes and ocean users to avoid and reduce potential impacts as much as we can,” she added.
“Amidst a global energy crisis, this action from the Department of the Interior is yet another attempt to add even more barriers to future energy production, increases uncertainty for producers and may further discourage oil and natural gas investment,” Holly Hopkins, the vice president of upstream policy at the American Petroleum Institute stated.
“This is a concerning approach from an administration that has repeatedly acted to restrict essential energy development.”
This decision has been contrasted with the administration’s actions targeting the oil and gas industry, raising questions about the administration’s approach to energy production.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... f0e7&ei=19
"Biden Admin Caught Red-Handed Skipping Taxpayer Safeguard To Push Through Green Energy Project"
Story by Jordan Andrews
1 DECEMBER 2023
The Biden administration granted a waiver to an energy firm developing an offshore wind project off the coast of Massachusetts, exempting them from paying development fees intended to protect taxpayers.
The decision has raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, as the former Deputy Interior Secretary had previously provided legal services to the energy firm.
“At the same time the Department of the Interior was looking at forcing greater and more expensive bonding requirements on holders of long-standing oil and gas leases, they were relaxing these requirements on the nation’s first utility-scale offshore wind energy producer, one that just coincidentally happened to be a client of their incoming #2,” PPT Director Michael Chamberlain said.
“If you want to talk about bad optics, I don’t see how they could be any worse than right here,” he added.
“For an administration touting itself as the most ethical in history, this represents yet another incident in which Secretary Haaland’s Interior appears to have a tough time living up to that standard.”
The waiver was approved despite the Trump administration’s prior rejection of the request.
The project, Vineyard Wind 1, has been fast-tracked, receiving federal approval and support from the Biden administration.
“Vineyard Wind 1 represents a historic milestone for advancing our nation’s clean energy production."
"This project and others across the country will create robust and sustainable economies that lift up communities and support good-paying jobs, while also ensuring future generations have a livable planet,” Haaland said in 2021.
“The Interior Department is committed to responsibly accelerating our nation’s transition to a clean energy future, and doing so in coordination with our partners, stakeholders, Tribes and ocean users to avoid and reduce potential impacts as much as we can,” she added.
“Amidst a global energy crisis, this action from the Department of the Interior is yet another attempt to add even more barriers to future energy production, increases uncertainty for producers and may further discourage oil and natural gas investment,” Holly Hopkins, the vice president of upstream policy at the American Petroleum Institute stated.
“This is a concerning approach from an administration that has repeatedly acted to restrict essential energy development.”
This decision has been contrasted with the administration’s actions targeting the oil and gas industry, raising questions about the administration’s approach to energy production.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... f0e7&ei=19
Re: WINDMILLS AND SOLAR FARMS
THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR DECEMBER 3, 2023 AT 7:19 PM
Paul Plante says:
So, yes, people – LIES and FAILURES!
And a HUGE national deficit that is BLEEDING our economy to pay the interest, some $2 BILLION per day that might as well have been consigned to a garbage incinerator because interest on the MASSIVE DEBT OUT-OF-CONTROL Joe Biden has wracked up to pay for his INSANE GREEN DREAM is UNPRODUCTIVE MONEY that buys WE, THE PEOPLE nothing at all, which is FISCAL IRRESPONIBILITY on the part of AUTOCRAT Joe Biden.
That is all we have to show so far from this sorry administration as to its so-called “accomplishments,” which takes us back to Biden lickspitttle Deb Haaland above here referring to Joe Biden’s WINDMILL FARMS, to wit:
“This project and others across the country will create robust and sustainable economies that lift up communities and support good-paying jobs, while also ensuring future generations have a livable planet,” Haaland said in 2021.
end quotes
Yes, people, that was in 2021, and it was nothing more than empty political BULL**** rhetoric then, just as it is today, and for proof of that assertion, let us simply go to a Bloomberg article titled “A $30 Billion Meltdown in Clean Energy Puts Biden’s Climate Goals at Risk” by David R Baker, Saijel Kishan and Jennifer A Dlouhy on 30 November 2023, where we have this analysis of the MASSIVE FISCAL FIASCO unleashed upon us by the Biden regime to our nation’s detriment as a result of Joe’s INSANE GREEN DREAM, to wit:
(Bloomberg Businessweek) — No one expected the transition from fossil fuels to be easy.
But a year after President Joe Biden’s landmark climate law promised billions of dollars for America’s switch to clean energy, some of the nation’s most ambitious renewable power projects have been shelved, electric car sales are missing targets and investors are fleeing the sector in droves.
The result is a $30 billion collapse in US clean energy stocks in the last six months — a market many investors expected to flourish in the aftermath of the law’s passage.
end quotes
Which conclusively proves two things beyond a shadow of a doubt, to wit: in Joe Biden’s version of America, there are indeed suckers being born every minute all over America and in Joe Biden’s America, fools are very easily parted from their money by Joe Biden’s empty promises to them of easy money to come if only they would get in on the ground floor, which takes us back to Bloomberg, to wit:
Few industries have been unscathed by soaring interest rates, but perhaps none has been harder hit than renewable energy.
For a sector that builds big, expensive facilities such as solar plants and wind farms, high rates cut profit margins enough to sink projects and bankrupt companies.
end quotes
And who is ultimately responsible for those high interest rates killing these projects?
And what am I saying, people?
That’s a no-brainer!
Of course it is Joe Biden and BIDEN-FLATION as a result of BIDE-O-NOMICS, Joe’s ill-thought-out and frankly stupid MARXIST economic programs, which takes us back to Bloomberg for more of this BIDEN FISCAL FIASCO, to wit:
The giddy enthusiasm that followed the Inflation Reduction Act’s passage evaporated, wiping out a quarter of the market value of US companies in the S&P Global Clean Energy Index in the six months ended Nov. 27.
It’s a meltdown that underscores the obstacles standing in the way of Biden’s ambitious climate goals.
end quotes
And these BLIND PROFLIGATE FOOLS spending our tax dollars indiscriminately like drunken sailors in a whore-house town never saw any of this coming, because they are stupid and fiscally irresponsible with our tax dollars, which is a clear sign as to how inept and incompetent they are with our tax dollars, which again takes us back to Bloomberg, to wit:
Along with sky-high financing costs, clean energy companies face the problems of winning over potential neighbors for their projects, securing government permits and plugging into a creaky power grid unable to handle all the renewable power that’s planned.
The warnings are clear: America’s road to achieving a zero-carbon electricity grid by 2035 is getting rockier by the day.
“We’re in the moment of realization now where some of the euphoria has worn off and we’re starting to realize it’s still not going to be easy,” says Eric Scheriff, senior managing director at Capstone, a Washington, DC-based consulting firm.
The specter of bankruptcies now haunts the sector.
Electric bus maker Proterra Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection earlier this year, with solar financing firm Sunlight Financial Holdings Inc. following soon after.
Deals are falling apart: Private equity-backed Ares Acquisition Corp. abandoned its planned merger with nuclear power technology company X-Energy Reactor Co. in October.
And projects have been canceled: Utility owner Avangrid Inc. shelved wind projects in Connecticut and Massachusetts this year, while NuScale Power Corp. abruptly terminated its plans for the first small modular reactor in the US — a technology seen as key to the sector’s potential revival.
For anyone who remembers the last cleantech bust more than a decade ago, it’s easy to fear a repeat.
“In the final analysis, green investing has to be based on economic realities,” says Jerome Dodson, the now-retired founder of Parnassus Investments, one of the world’s largest sustainable investment firms, with $42 billion in assets.
He sold his stake in the business in 2021 — at the “top of the market,” as he puts it — and predicts that wind and solar stocks could fall an additional 15% to 20% in the next six to eight months.
It was only two years ago that Wall Street investors and bankers headed to Scotland for a global climate meeting, waxing lyrical about net-zero emissions goals and the profits to be made from the shift to cleaner energy.
That’s a stark contrast to the current mood as the world convenes again for climate talks at the COP28 summit this week in Dubai.
end quotes
And with that in the record to digest, let us take a pause for station identification and twenty-two hours of very interesting and informative infomercials telling you pretty much everything there is to know about what the Biden regime wants you to know about, and then we will be back with more.
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/paul-p ... ent-879255
Paul Plante says:
So, yes, people – LIES and FAILURES!
And a HUGE national deficit that is BLEEDING our economy to pay the interest, some $2 BILLION per day that might as well have been consigned to a garbage incinerator because interest on the MASSIVE DEBT OUT-OF-CONTROL Joe Biden has wracked up to pay for his INSANE GREEN DREAM is UNPRODUCTIVE MONEY that buys WE, THE PEOPLE nothing at all, which is FISCAL IRRESPONIBILITY on the part of AUTOCRAT Joe Biden.
That is all we have to show so far from this sorry administration as to its so-called “accomplishments,” which takes us back to Biden lickspitttle Deb Haaland above here referring to Joe Biden’s WINDMILL FARMS, to wit:
“This project and others across the country will create robust and sustainable economies that lift up communities and support good-paying jobs, while also ensuring future generations have a livable planet,” Haaland said in 2021.
end quotes
Yes, people, that was in 2021, and it was nothing more than empty political BULL**** rhetoric then, just as it is today, and for proof of that assertion, let us simply go to a Bloomberg article titled “A $30 Billion Meltdown in Clean Energy Puts Biden’s Climate Goals at Risk” by David R Baker, Saijel Kishan and Jennifer A Dlouhy on 30 November 2023, where we have this analysis of the MASSIVE FISCAL FIASCO unleashed upon us by the Biden regime to our nation’s detriment as a result of Joe’s INSANE GREEN DREAM, to wit:
(Bloomberg Businessweek) — No one expected the transition from fossil fuels to be easy.
But a year after President Joe Biden’s landmark climate law promised billions of dollars for America’s switch to clean energy, some of the nation’s most ambitious renewable power projects have been shelved, electric car sales are missing targets and investors are fleeing the sector in droves.
The result is a $30 billion collapse in US clean energy stocks in the last six months — a market many investors expected to flourish in the aftermath of the law’s passage.
end quotes
Which conclusively proves two things beyond a shadow of a doubt, to wit: in Joe Biden’s version of America, there are indeed suckers being born every minute all over America and in Joe Biden’s America, fools are very easily parted from their money by Joe Biden’s empty promises to them of easy money to come if only they would get in on the ground floor, which takes us back to Bloomberg, to wit:
Few industries have been unscathed by soaring interest rates, but perhaps none has been harder hit than renewable energy.
For a sector that builds big, expensive facilities such as solar plants and wind farms, high rates cut profit margins enough to sink projects and bankrupt companies.
end quotes
And who is ultimately responsible for those high interest rates killing these projects?
And what am I saying, people?
That’s a no-brainer!
Of course it is Joe Biden and BIDEN-FLATION as a result of BIDE-O-NOMICS, Joe’s ill-thought-out and frankly stupid MARXIST economic programs, which takes us back to Bloomberg for more of this BIDEN FISCAL FIASCO, to wit:
The giddy enthusiasm that followed the Inflation Reduction Act’s passage evaporated, wiping out a quarter of the market value of US companies in the S&P Global Clean Energy Index in the six months ended Nov. 27.
It’s a meltdown that underscores the obstacles standing in the way of Biden’s ambitious climate goals.
end quotes
And these BLIND PROFLIGATE FOOLS spending our tax dollars indiscriminately like drunken sailors in a whore-house town never saw any of this coming, because they are stupid and fiscally irresponsible with our tax dollars, which is a clear sign as to how inept and incompetent they are with our tax dollars, which again takes us back to Bloomberg, to wit:
Along with sky-high financing costs, clean energy companies face the problems of winning over potential neighbors for their projects, securing government permits and plugging into a creaky power grid unable to handle all the renewable power that’s planned.
The warnings are clear: America’s road to achieving a zero-carbon electricity grid by 2035 is getting rockier by the day.
“We’re in the moment of realization now where some of the euphoria has worn off and we’re starting to realize it’s still not going to be easy,” says Eric Scheriff, senior managing director at Capstone, a Washington, DC-based consulting firm.
The specter of bankruptcies now haunts the sector.
Electric bus maker Proterra Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection earlier this year, with solar financing firm Sunlight Financial Holdings Inc. following soon after.
Deals are falling apart: Private equity-backed Ares Acquisition Corp. abandoned its planned merger with nuclear power technology company X-Energy Reactor Co. in October.
And projects have been canceled: Utility owner Avangrid Inc. shelved wind projects in Connecticut and Massachusetts this year, while NuScale Power Corp. abruptly terminated its plans for the first small modular reactor in the US — a technology seen as key to the sector’s potential revival.
For anyone who remembers the last cleantech bust more than a decade ago, it’s easy to fear a repeat.
“In the final analysis, green investing has to be based on economic realities,” says Jerome Dodson, the now-retired founder of Parnassus Investments, one of the world’s largest sustainable investment firms, with $42 billion in assets.
He sold his stake in the business in 2021 — at the “top of the market,” as he puts it — and predicts that wind and solar stocks could fall an additional 15% to 20% in the next six to eight months.
It was only two years ago that Wall Street investors and bankers headed to Scotland for a global climate meeting, waxing lyrical about net-zero emissions goals and the profits to be made from the shift to cleaner energy.
That’s a stark contrast to the current mood as the world convenes again for climate talks at the COP28 summit this week in Dubai.
end quotes
And with that in the record to digest, let us take a pause for station identification and twenty-two hours of very interesting and informative infomercials telling you pretty much everything there is to know about what the Biden regime wants you to know about, and then we will be back with more.
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/paul-p ... ent-879255
Re: WINDMILLS AND SOLAR FARMS
GistFest
"Biden’s Administration Is Facing a Congressional Probe for Investing Billions Into a Shady Solar Company"
Story by GistFest
13 DECEMBER 2023
Republican leaders are probing the Department of Energy (DOE) over its recent $3 billion award to a solar energy company.
But only because the company is famous for scamming vulnerable customers.
DOE Loan Programs Office Director Jigar Shah received a letter to this effect.
In it, House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Ranking Member John Barrasso expressed concern about rewarding the Houston-based Sunnova Energy Corporation.
They cited reports highlighting how Sunnova has scammed and misled consumers.
They wrote: “We are alarmed about recent, credible reports that Sunnova has racked up numerous consumer complaints."
"Including those alleging troubling sales practices, such as Sunnova pressing elderly homeowners in poor health to sign long-term contracts costing tens of thousands of dollars.”
“These reports cite interviews with individuals who struggled to deal with large contracts that their elderly parents signed shortly before passing away as well as state consumer complaints alleging maintenance delays and predatory sales strategies,” the letter continues.
In late September, the DOE Loan Programs Office revealed the closing of a $3 billion partial loan guarantee to Sunnova’s Project Hestia.
This was to provide solar and battery storage to low-income individuals as part of President Biden’s sweeping green energy agenda.
It was the federal government’s most significant commitment ever to solar power.
According to the announcement, the project will provide loans for clean energy systems.
This will be available for about 75,000 to 115,000 U.S. and Puerto Rico homeowners.
However, the reports mentioned in the letter by McMorris Rodgers and Barrasso focus on specific incidents.
The Republican leaders, in their letter, claim that the accounts have a pattern to them.
Earlier this year, the Better Business Bureau assigned Sunnova an “F rating” over its pattern of “deceptive sales practices.”
It is also guilty of poor customer service and repair technicians not arriving on schedule.
Consumers claim Sunnova only resolved their issues after filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
Aside from the poor service, Sunnova also scams vulnerable consumers, including the elderly and sick.
The report highlighted multiple examples of door-to-door Sunnova salespersons persuading these individuals to sign 25-year solar panel leases.
A Sunnova spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon, “All customers, regardless of age, are required to complete a thorough validation process where we confirm their identity and ensure that they have read and comprehended the terms of their agreements.”
According to the spokesperson, Sunnova is “fully dedicated to assisting all our customers in resolving any issues that may arise during the life of their agreement or due to external factors.”
Sunnova was born in 2012 and ultimately went public seven years later in 2019.
The company offers to install rooftop solar panels, mainly for residential customers, in exchange for a low-cost lease.
Unfortunately, the company has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years.
And its stock price has been on a downtrend.
In 2021, it lost $147.5 million.
In 2022, it lost $130 million; since January 2021, its stock price has fallen more than 77%.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/compani ... 4f16&ei=31
"Biden’s Administration Is Facing a Congressional Probe for Investing Billions Into a Shady Solar Company"
Story by GistFest
13 DECEMBER 2023
Republican leaders are probing the Department of Energy (DOE) over its recent $3 billion award to a solar energy company.
But only because the company is famous for scamming vulnerable customers.
DOE Loan Programs Office Director Jigar Shah received a letter to this effect.
In it, House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Ranking Member John Barrasso expressed concern about rewarding the Houston-based Sunnova Energy Corporation.
They cited reports highlighting how Sunnova has scammed and misled consumers.
They wrote: “We are alarmed about recent, credible reports that Sunnova has racked up numerous consumer complaints."
"Including those alleging troubling sales practices, such as Sunnova pressing elderly homeowners in poor health to sign long-term contracts costing tens of thousands of dollars.”
“These reports cite interviews with individuals who struggled to deal with large contracts that their elderly parents signed shortly before passing away as well as state consumer complaints alleging maintenance delays and predatory sales strategies,” the letter continues.
In late September, the DOE Loan Programs Office revealed the closing of a $3 billion partial loan guarantee to Sunnova’s Project Hestia.
This was to provide solar and battery storage to low-income individuals as part of President Biden’s sweeping green energy agenda.
It was the federal government’s most significant commitment ever to solar power.
According to the announcement, the project will provide loans for clean energy systems.
This will be available for about 75,000 to 115,000 U.S. and Puerto Rico homeowners.
However, the reports mentioned in the letter by McMorris Rodgers and Barrasso focus on specific incidents.
The Republican leaders, in their letter, claim that the accounts have a pattern to them.
Earlier this year, the Better Business Bureau assigned Sunnova an “F rating” over its pattern of “deceptive sales practices.”
It is also guilty of poor customer service and repair technicians not arriving on schedule.
Consumers claim Sunnova only resolved their issues after filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
Aside from the poor service, Sunnova also scams vulnerable consumers, including the elderly and sick.
The report highlighted multiple examples of door-to-door Sunnova salespersons persuading these individuals to sign 25-year solar panel leases.
A Sunnova spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon, “All customers, regardless of age, are required to complete a thorough validation process where we confirm their identity and ensure that they have read and comprehended the terms of their agreements.”
According to the spokesperson, Sunnova is “fully dedicated to assisting all our customers in resolving any issues that may arise during the life of their agreement or due to external factors.”
Sunnova was born in 2012 and ultimately went public seven years later in 2019.
The company offers to install rooftop solar panels, mainly for residential customers, in exchange for a low-cost lease.
Unfortunately, the company has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years.
And its stock price has been on a downtrend.
In 2021, it lost $147.5 million.
In 2022, it lost $130 million; since January 2021, its stock price has fallen more than 77%.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/compani ... 4f16&ei=31
Re: WINDMILLS AND SOLAR FARMS
REUTERS
"SunPower shares slide after raising going-concern doubts"
By Sourasis Bose
December 18, 2023
Dec 18 (Reuters) - SunPower on Monday raised doubts about its ability to stay in business, saying that its breach of a key term in a credit agreement could prompt lenders to recall certain loans, sending its shares tumbling 23%.
The company said in a regulatory filing that lenders may demand immediate payment of $65.3 million in debt after it failed to file its third-quarter results on time.
SunPower said it was currently in talks with the lenders for a waiver, adding that if it failed to secure one, it would not have sufficient funds for its day-to-day operations.
However, Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov told Reuters that the company would not have any problem obtaining a waiver since it was essentially a technical issue.
Earlier in the month, the company was able to secure a waiver after breaching the terms of a larger credit agreement.
SunPower had revealed in October that it would restate its financial statements for last year as well as the first and second quarters due to issues with inventory valuation.
Reporting by Sourasis Bose in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy ... 023-12-18/
"SunPower shares slide after raising going-concern doubts"
By Sourasis Bose
December 18, 2023
Dec 18 (Reuters) - SunPower on Monday raised doubts about its ability to stay in business, saying that its breach of a key term in a credit agreement could prompt lenders to recall certain loans, sending its shares tumbling 23%.
The company said in a regulatory filing that lenders may demand immediate payment of $65.3 million in debt after it failed to file its third-quarter results on time.
SunPower said it was currently in talks with the lenders for a waiver, adding that if it failed to secure one, it would not have sufficient funds for its day-to-day operations.
However, Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov told Reuters that the company would not have any problem obtaining a waiver since it was essentially a technical issue.
Earlier in the month, the company was able to secure a waiver after breaching the terms of a larger credit agreement.
SunPower had revealed in October that it would restate its financial statements for last year as well as the first and second quarters due to issues with inventory valuation.
Reporting by Sourasis Bose in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy ... 023-12-18/
Re: WINDMILLS AND SOLAR FARMS
The Washington Examiner
"California admits its reckless renewable energy dream is failing"
Opinion by Zachary Faria
19 DECEMBER 2023
California’s dream of renewable green energy has left the state worse off, and even California Democrats have recognized just how deep the failure runs.
California energy regulators on Thursday voted to extend the lifespan of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant by five years, moving the shutdown date from 2025 to 2030.
The 2025 date was agreed to back in 2016 as California Democrats attempted to purge nuclear energy from the state’s grid.
It is yet another admission of failure by California Democrats in their embarrassing effort to turn the state into a wind- and solar-powered liberal paradise despite the technology being nowhere near making that possible.
Diablo Canyon alone provides roughly 9% of the state’s electricity, leading even Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) to reverse his previous opposition to the plant and advocate its extension.
It isn’t just nuclear energy that is getting reevaluated either.
Newsom went from campaigning to shut down the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility to pushing for it to be expanded.
Natural gas comprised about 47% of the state’s energy in 2022, compared to just over 26% for wind and solar combined.
This now marks four years of California turning to natural gas to avoid blackouts, with Newsom now taking a more proactive approach to avoid additional headlines about, for example, firing up temporary gas-field generators to keep the grid running.
Implicit in all of this is the admission that California’s renewable dream was a miserable failure.
Knowingly or not, California Democrats recklessly pursued energy policies that would leave the state unable to provide consistently reliable energy for its residents.
They didn’t have a plan to move on from natural gas or the nuclear energy provided by Diablo Canyon.
They only had a dream toward which they wanted to plow forward regardless of the consequences, up until those consequences caused politically inconvenient headlines for Newsom and others about their inability to even keep the lights on.
The renewable energy dreams that Democrats are selling are frauds, and even California Democrats have shown that to be the case now.
The rapid transition to unreliable forms of energy is not possible in its current, dreamed time frames.
Voters should immediately distrust any politician following California’s model for ruining its energy grid in the name of climate change.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... b134&ei=54
"California admits its reckless renewable energy dream is failing"
Opinion by Zachary Faria
19 DECEMBER 2023
California’s dream of renewable green energy has left the state worse off, and even California Democrats have recognized just how deep the failure runs.
California energy regulators on Thursday voted to extend the lifespan of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant by five years, moving the shutdown date from 2025 to 2030.
The 2025 date was agreed to back in 2016 as California Democrats attempted to purge nuclear energy from the state’s grid.
It is yet another admission of failure by California Democrats in their embarrassing effort to turn the state into a wind- and solar-powered liberal paradise despite the technology being nowhere near making that possible.
Diablo Canyon alone provides roughly 9% of the state’s electricity, leading even Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) to reverse his previous opposition to the plant and advocate its extension.
It isn’t just nuclear energy that is getting reevaluated either.
Newsom went from campaigning to shut down the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility to pushing for it to be expanded.
Natural gas comprised about 47% of the state’s energy in 2022, compared to just over 26% for wind and solar combined.
This now marks four years of California turning to natural gas to avoid blackouts, with Newsom now taking a more proactive approach to avoid additional headlines about, for example, firing up temporary gas-field generators to keep the grid running.
Implicit in all of this is the admission that California’s renewable dream was a miserable failure.
Knowingly or not, California Democrats recklessly pursued energy policies that would leave the state unable to provide consistently reliable energy for its residents.
They didn’t have a plan to move on from natural gas or the nuclear energy provided by Diablo Canyon.
They only had a dream toward which they wanted to plow forward regardless of the consequences, up until those consequences caused politically inconvenient headlines for Newsom and others about their inability to even keep the lights on.
The renewable energy dreams that Democrats are selling are frauds, and even California Democrats have shown that to be the case now.
The rapid transition to unreliable forms of energy is not possible in its current, dreamed time frames.
Voters should immediately distrust any politician following California’s model for ruining its energy grid in the name of climate change.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... b134&ei=54
Re: WINDMILLS AND SOLAR FARMS
The Western Journal
"Green Energy Fail: Much-Hyped Plan for Nation's First Freshwater Wind Farm on Lake Erie Gets Shelved"
Story by Jack Davis
3 JUANUARY 2024
A project to put wind turbines in Lake Erie has collapsed amid higher-than-expected costs and other challenges that doomed the project.
The Lake Erie Energy Development Corp., which sought to put six wind turbines on the lake about eight miles from Cleveland, announced in early December it has “made the difficult decision to temporarily halt the Icebreaker Wind project,” according to Cleveland,com.
The project, dubbed Icebreaker, was considered to be a test that proponents said would usher in a new era of clean energy.
As the first proposed freshwater wind farm in North America, its supporters viewed it as a chance to see if the Great Lake -- and its freezing winter temperatures -- would have been too inhospitable a host for the project.
“Given the set of circumstances right now we don’t have a way to push things forward unless something changes,” said Will Friedman, who is a development corporation board member and president and CEO of the Port of Cleveland, according to Cleveland.com.
Icebreaker Wind project halted, no plans to resurrect effort to put wind turbines in Lake Erie: A pilot project to bring wind power to Lake Erie has been put on hold amid rising costs and other challenges that have delayed progress and dimmed its chances… https://t.co/2OQduhMa4P pic.twitter.com/LjpjuUAaHg
Friedman said the project had received a $50 million grant from the federal government, according to Cleveland.com.
With the announcement, $37 million of that money is being returned.
The blog Master Resource \-- published by the Institute for Energy Research \-- chortled that “The Great Lakes will not be ‘the Saudi Arabia of wind.’"
"Less is always best with government-dependent industrial wind.”
A news release posted by the Port of Cleveland cited “frivolous and costly lawsuits funded by dark money tied to fossil fuel interests” and concerns for the impact of the turbines on birds as contributing to the death of the project, which had been proposed in 2009.
“This burdensome litigation caused years of delays and significant expense."
"The delays have led to a constrained economics for the project,” the release said.
Icebreaker Wind project halted, no plans to resurrect effort to put wind turbines in Lake Erie https://t.co/w7m3zh86Vy
— Thomas Suddes (@ThomasSuddes) December 8, 2023
The release also noted that a pause in the development of the project was triggered by a condition that turbines not operate at night for several months out of the year to protect birds.
Although that ruling was overturned, the release said it was a critical factor that contributed to its failure.
The end of the Lake Erie project comes as other wind farm projects are battling headwinds.
Multiple offshore wind projects are not only failing to achieve the results they promised but are costing companies huge chunks of cash.
I love the idea of solar & wind energy, but I've always wondered about the monetary cost, and the environmental costs of mining all the resources for all the necessary batteries. https://t.co/poa9JMdFDx
— Tom (@TomjRace) December 9, 2023
General Electric, for instance, said it expected to lose $1 billion in 2023 and again in 2024 because of its offshore wind project losses, according to Bloomberg.
Munich, Germany-based Siemens Energy is looking at a loss of 4.5 billion euros, according to Fortune while Orsted A/S, based in Fredericia, Denmark, is facing a loss of $2.3 billion due to its wind projects, according to Bloomberg.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... acca&ei=60
"Green Energy Fail: Much-Hyped Plan for Nation's First Freshwater Wind Farm on Lake Erie Gets Shelved"
Story by Jack Davis
3 JUANUARY 2024
A project to put wind turbines in Lake Erie has collapsed amid higher-than-expected costs and other challenges that doomed the project.
The Lake Erie Energy Development Corp., which sought to put six wind turbines on the lake about eight miles from Cleveland, announced in early December it has “made the difficult decision to temporarily halt the Icebreaker Wind project,” according to Cleveland,com.
The project, dubbed Icebreaker, was considered to be a test that proponents said would usher in a new era of clean energy.
As the first proposed freshwater wind farm in North America, its supporters viewed it as a chance to see if the Great Lake -- and its freezing winter temperatures -- would have been too inhospitable a host for the project.
“Given the set of circumstances right now we don’t have a way to push things forward unless something changes,” said Will Friedman, who is a development corporation board member and president and CEO of the Port of Cleveland, according to Cleveland.com.
Icebreaker Wind project halted, no plans to resurrect effort to put wind turbines in Lake Erie: A pilot project to bring wind power to Lake Erie has been put on hold amid rising costs and other challenges that have delayed progress and dimmed its chances… https://t.co/2OQduhMa4P pic.twitter.com/LjpjuUAaHg
Friedman said the project had received a $50 million grant from the federal government, according to Cleveland.com.
With the announcement, $37 million of that money is being returned.
The blog Master Resource \-- published by the Institute for Energy Research \-- chortled that “The Great Lakes will not be ‘the Saudi Arabia of wind.’"
"Less is always best with government-dependent industrial wind.”
A news release posted by the Port of Cleveland cited “frivolous and costly lawsuits funded by dark money tied to fossil fuel interests” and concerns for the impact of the turbines on birds as contributing to the death of the project, which had been proposed in 2009.
“This burdensome litigation caused years of delays and significant expense."
"The delays have led to a constrained economics for the project,” the release said.
Icebreaker Wind project halted, no plans to resurrect effort to put wind turbines in Lake Erie https://t.co/w7m3zh86Vy
— Thomas Suddes (@ThomasSuddes) December 8, 2023
The release also noted that a pause in the development of the project was triggered by a condition that turbines not operate at night for several months out of the year to protect birds.
Although that ruling was overturned, the release said it was a critical factor that contributed to its failure.
The end of the Lake Erie project comes as other wind farm projects are battling headwinds.
Multiple offshore wind projects are not only failing to achieve the results they promised but are costing companies huge chunks of cash.
I love the idea of solar & wind energy, but I've always wondered about the monetary cost, and the environmental costs of mining all the resources for all the necessary batteries. https://t.co/poa9JMdFDx
— Tom (@TomjRace) December 9, 2023
General Electric, for instance, said it expected to lose $1 billion in 2023 and again in 2024 because of its offshore wind project losses, according to Bloomberg.
Munich, Germany-based Siemens Energy is looking at a loss of 4.5 billion euros, according to Fortune while Orsted A/S, based in Fredericia, Denmark, is facing a loss of $2.3 billion due to its wind projects, according to Bloomberg.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... acca&ei=60
Re: WINDMILLS AND SOLAR FARMS
REUTERS
"Equinor, BP cancel contract to sell offshore wind power to New York"
Reuters
January 3, 2024
Jan 3 (Reuters) - European energy firms Equinor and BP terminated their agreement to sell power to New York state from their proposed Empire Wind 2 offshore wind farm, citing rising inflation, higher borrowing costs, and supply chain issues.
"This agreement reflects changed economic circumstances on an industry-wide scale and repositions an already mature project to continue development in anticipation of new offtake opportunities," Equinor said in a statement on Wednesday, in an apparent reference to a new offshore wind solicitation launched by New York in November.
The solicitation allows companies to exit old contracts and re-offer projects at higher prices.
The winners of an expedited solicitation for offshore wind will be announced in February.
An Equinor spokesperson declined to comment on the bid strategy for the 1,260-megawatt (MW) Empire Wind 2 project, but said it was "carefully assessing" the solicitation and was "encouraged by the state's commitment to offshore wind."
The power sale agreement for the 816-MW Empire Wind 1 remains in place, the spokesperson added.
One megawatt of offshore wind can power around 500 U.S. homes.
The offshore wind industry is expected to play a major role in helping U.S. President Joe Biden and several states, including New York, meet their goals to decarbonize the power grid and combat climate change.
But progress slowed in 2023 after offshore developers canceled contracts to sell power in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey, and threatened to cancel agreements in other states, as soaring inflation, interest rate hikes and supply chain problems increased project costs.
New York accelerated its solicitation in October after several developers, including Orsted, the world's biggest offshore wind company, BP and Equinor, threatened to cancel contracts to sell power that were awarded in 2019 and 2021 before the Federal Reserve started hiking interest rates in March 2022 to fight soaring inflation.
"Empire Wind 2 has been 'at risk' since the project developers made clear in their June 2023 petition that they would not move forward under the current contract," said Timothy Fox, managing director at ClearView Energy Partners.
New York's first offshore wind farm, Orsted's 132-MW South Fork, provided its first power in December.
In Massachusetts, Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners said on Wednesday their 806-MW Vineyard Wind 1 project produced first power for the New England grid.
Avangrid is majority-owned by Spanish energy company Iberdrola.
Reporting by Deep Vakil in Bengaluru and Scott DiSavino in New York; Editing by Richard Chang
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy ... 024-01-03/
"Equinor, BP cancel contract to sell offshore wind power to New York"
Reuters
January 3, 2024
Jan 3 (Reuters) - European energy firms Equinor and BP terminated their agreement to sell power to New York state from their proposed Empire Wind 2 offshore wind farm, citing rising inflation, higher borrowing costs, and supply chain issues.
"This agreement reflects changed economic circumstances on an industry-wide scale and repositions an already mature project to continue development in anticipation of new offtake opportunities," Equinor said in a statement on Wednesday, in an apparent reference to a new offshore wind solicitation launched by New York in November.
The solicitation allows companies to exit old contracts and re-offer projects at higher prices.
The winners of an expedited solicitation for offshore wind will be announced in February.
An Equinor spokesperson declined to comment on the bid strategy for the 1,260-megawatt (MW) Empire Wind 2 project, but said it was "carefully assessing" the solicitation and was "encouraged by the state's commitment to offshore wind."
The power sale agreement for the 816-MW Empire Wind 1 remains in place, the spokesperson added.
One megawatt of offshore wind can power around 500 U.S. homes.
The offshore wind industry is expected to play a major role in helping U.S. President Joe Biden and several states, including New York, meet their goals to decarbonize the power grid and combat climate change.
But progress slowed in 2023 after offshore developers canceled contracts to sell power in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey, and threatened to cancel agreements in other states, as soaring inflation, interest rate hikes and supply chain problems increased project costs.
New York accelerated its solicitation in October after several developers, including Orsted, the world's biggest offshore wind company, BP and Equinor, threatened to cancel contracts to sell power that were awarded in 2019 and 2021 before the Federal Reserve started hiking interest rates in March 2022 to fight soaring inflation.
"Empire Wind 2 has been 'at risk' since the project developers made clear in their June 2023 petition that they would not move forward under the current contract," said Timothy Fox, managing director at ClearView Energy Partners.
New York's first offshore wind farm, Orsted's 132-MW South Fork, provided its first power in December.
In Massachusetts, Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners said on Wednesday their 806-MW Vineyard Wind 1 project produced first power for the New England grid.
Avangrid is majority-owned by Spanish energy company Iberdrola.
Reporting by Deep Vakil in Bengaluru and Scott DiSavino in New York; Editing by Richard Chang
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy ... 024-01-03/