Subsidy calm: Scottish wind-turbine maker collapses amid 'Westminster cuts' to renewables
The statement said: "Although Gaia-Wind has a long and successful history in the industry, competitive pressures in Denmark reduced sales in the last year or so which was not helped by the UK government's reduction in tariff support in recent years.
"Although a business plan at the end of 2017 provided a practical basis for survival, recent drastic cuts in Italian and Japanese government support for small scale wind turbines lead to dramatic reduction in the immediate order pipeline in those markets. Faced with these challenging circumstances in each of its main market areas, the board reached the unfortunate decision that the company had no option but to cease trading."
Johnnie Andringa, Gaia-Wind director, said bringing in a liquidator had been a "last resort".
Now I get it - it's the SUBSIDIES that have to be the 'sustainable' part of 'sustainable energy'. Wow. Who knew?
Oh, wait.....
And the punch line is they were going to save twelve jobs.
Good. The more businesses built on the AGW fraud that collapse the better.
Fully agree, Ken (Kulak).
It always makes me wonder when we see how governments tax us to death for their pet projects, such as turbines. Why don't Canadians/Americans/Europeans rise up against these decisions and storm the castle?
We just take it on the chin time after time and then vote the same jerks or another set of jerks back in for a little more tax increase.
Just when is enough, enough?
Serious question: are there any wind or solar electricity companies that are profitable without subsidies, mandates and feed in tariffs? Are any of them able to produce power effectively enough to not require conventional power backup?
The biggest lie is that carbon taxes will *replace* government subsidies and crony capitalism for wind and solar. Nope. Those taxes will be *in addition* to all of the other market distorting interventions. Has any Canadian provincial government even suggested, let alone promised, to get rid of everything else if they force a carbon tax on taxpayers?
It's almost a big of a con job as promising it'll be revenue neutral. Look at BC. According to the Financial Post it hasn't been revenue neutral since 2013 once you remove the creative accounting of pre-existing tax credits. The Tyee, of all places, says that hasn't really decreased emissions once you correct for the effect of the recession and that BCs economic growth was slower than Alberta and Saskatchewan in the years after the carbon tax (but before the oil bust, I assume). I know the economist party shows it being a huge success story with their statistics but I'm not convinced that they're objective, honest brokers on this subject.
Wonder who will maintain the current 2,000 installed turbines and dismantle them once their 12 years of life is done.?
"Gaia-Wind"? For real?
la la la la, la LA la la la, la la la la..... (theme from 'Gone with the Wind')
Wind turbines kill a rather staggering 600,000 to 900,000 bats every year, according to a new study.
But now the bats are becoming smart enough to avoid many miles of these wind farms.
Homeowners are complaining because of the insects, mosquitoes, fly's and pests that bats devour.
It would be terrible if the environmentalist living close to these Fan Gaia areas developed Malaria or some of the other diseases that bats prevent. Just terrible.
Yep. If unreliables are getting cheaper every day, why are there always bankruptcies whenever a single penny is cut from one, anywhere in the world.
If the claims made about unreliables were true, the only thing ending these businesses would be the crushing weight of the money falling from the sky and flattening their factories.
Littering the landscape with these fugly contraptions ... is the most disgusting, foul, and thoughtless affront to the environment in the history of mankind. This green milk cow has got to end. And then every one of the “investors” in these “clean, green, renewable” energy towering disasters ... should PAY to have them removed.
From what I can tell this is the economist party's thought process on carbon pricing: we need to change our behaviour and change the energy mix. Higher prices for fossil fuels forces consumerss to change and is a market based solution. Here's what is happening in the real world
economist party --- energy consumers
1) conserve power --- done but bills keep going up and I have to keep the heat on and cook to be able to live
2)build solar and wind power --- ok but subsidies for construction and operation -plus- building reliable backup power for renewables means that electricity bills go through the roof for residential consumers. See: Ontario and Germany
3)build nuclear power ---- NIMBYs won't let us
4) make carbon pricing revenue neutral, cut other taxes --- governments laughed and said go away, peasant. They borrowed money to give us temporary relief but that just adds to our debt. See Ontario
5) hmmm, it looked good on paper --- so, now what? We're stuck paying more and more for energy with no possibility of reliable, affordable power because solar and wind cannot replace baseload power and baseload power is being shutdown due to carbon pricing.
6) I know, increase carbon prices more to change behaviour and change the energy mix *and spur innovation* --- You're kidding, right. Remember the NIMBYs. I can barely afford to pay for gasoline for my car now, in addition to unaffordable heat and electricity.
7) buy a government subsidized electric car --- I'll have to charge it using the expensive system you've created that I already can't afford. Review points 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Rev.e.nue. Neu.tral ... ahhhhh ha ha ha ha ha ha ... ha ha ha ha ... Not even Donald Trump will do THAT !!
Kenji: MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY!!!
"...and secure 12 jobs." Sounds as if the move from Denmark was more for gov't subsidies and less for actual economics. Said subsidies are now drying up. Awwww Muffin.