Wind Energy Withering Without Windfall -- The New York Times

This is the third story on the withering wind energy industry in about as many days. This one is in the New York Times. The first article was in the Des Moines Register. I believe Iowa leads the nation in wind energy. The next article posted was in the Wall Street Journal -- the most reliable, fact-based, unbiased daily print/newspaper out there. (The New York Times has some of the best writing, also, but the front page is the first page of their editorial section; once one realizes that, the New York Times is fine.) But I digress.

So, now the third major story in about as many days. The wind energy industry is withering without its windfall of taxpayers subsidies, grants, loans, tax breaks, whatever.

Last month, Gamesa, a major maker ofwind turbines, completed the first significant order of its latest innovation: a camper-size box that can capture the energy of slow winds, potentially opening new parts of the country to wind power.  

But by the time the last of the devices, worth more than $1.25 million, was hitched to a rail car, Gamesa had furloughed 92 of the 115 workers who made them. 

Similar cuts are happening throughout the American wind sector, which includes hundreds of manufacturers, from multinationals that make giant windmills to smaller local manufacturers that supply specialty steel or bolts. 

In recent months, companies have announced almost 1,700 layoffs. At its peak in 2008 and 2009, the industry employed about 85,000 people, according to the American Wind Energy Association, the industry’s principal trade group. About 10,000 of those jobs have disappeared since, according to the association, as wind companies have been buffeted by weak demand for electricity, stiff competition from cheap natural gas and cheaper options from Asian competitors. 

Chinese manufacturers, who can often underprice goods because of generous state subsidies, have moved into the American market and have become an issue in the larger trade tensions between the countries. In July, the United States Commerce Department imposed tariffs on steel turbine towers from China after finding that manufacturers had been selling them for less than the cost of production.

So, I guess we'll blame this on the Chinese. What "we" can't blame on the former president, we blame the Chinese.

Earlier, MDW noted that the subsidy amounted to 2.2 cents/kwh -- almost negligible but apparently makes all the difference in the world.

In the linked article at the New York Times, this data point:

On top of the business challenges, the industry is facing a big political problem in Washington: the Dec. 31 expiration of a federal tax credit that makes wind power more competitive with other sources of electricity.  

The tax break, which costs about $1 billion a year, has been periodically renewed by Congress with support from both parties. This year, however, it has become a wedge issue in the presidential contest.

You have got to be kidding. One billion dollars ($1 billion) a year? Bill Gates or Warren Buffett or Apple, Inc. or Chevron or BP (of "gulf spill" fame) could come up with $1 billion in pocket change. If an industry the size of the wind industry can't survive without a $1 billion tax credit ...

As I mentioned earlier, the $1 billion is nothing compared to the nation's $16 trillion deficit. My issue with wind turbines is that they have no redeeming value. None.