{"id":388569,"date":"2025-07-13T13:28:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T11:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=388569"},"modified":"2025-07-13T13:28:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T11:28:14","slug":"offshore-wind-fantasy-is-crumbling-against-hard-reality-of-metal-boat-cable-and-money-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=388569","title":{"rendered":"Offshore wind fantasy is crumbling against hard reality of metal, boat, cable, and money shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From JoNova<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jo Nova<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s so unfair, the wind is free, but who could have known we\u2019d need metals, boats, cables, and magnets?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Governments waved their magic wands to declare the renewable transition would \u201cbling\u201d into existence, but they didn\u2019t bother doing the sums on whether we could mine the vast resources in time, and what would happen to the prices of everything, if every other stupid fashion-obsessed western nation tried to do the  same thing at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the academic safe space known as \u201cThe Conversion\u201d Thomas York explains to baffled renewables fans why wind farm developers are mysteriously pulling out at the last minute. He doesn\u2019t spell out the baby-nature of the economic reality, but we can read between the lines. The ship called The Infrastructure-Bill has arrived and it\u2019s killing them: the price of steel, copper and aluminium has doubled and tripled; we can\u2019t make the right boats fast enough to build the towers out at sea; everyone wants high-voltage cabling at the same time, and they all need the rare metals for the magnets, which are well, rare. Then, the delays in arranging all this mean the developers fall over their contract agreements timelines, so they start to lose subsidies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately developers have raised their prices to cover the true costs, but then the customers aren\u2019t happy. As the University of Leicester researcher says so poignantly when faced with the brutal reality of the market: \u201cit [wind power] is simply not profitable enough\u201d<\/em>. He even admits \u201crenewable energy still cannot compete with oil and gas.\u201d<\/em> Sacre bleu!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UK government magic wand says it can generate 95% of energy from renewable sources by 2030. York, master of understatement, says the \u201ctarget is now in jeopardy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lordy, but the skeptics were right all along\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

By Thomas York, at The Conversion<\/em>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Projects just kept getting bigger until it all broke:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UK government\u2019s strategy for tackling climate change received a major blow in May when Danish developer \u00d8rsted announced that\u00a0adverse economic developments<\/a>\u00a0had halted its 2.4-gigawatt (GW) Hornsea 4 wind farm in the North Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supply, meet demand: When everyone wants the same thing at the same time, prices rise<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building a wind turbine requires significant amounts of steel, copper and aluminium, all of which doubled or tripled in price<\/a> between 2020 and 2023. Turbine manufacturers have raised prices<\/a> in an effort to recover recent losses\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Impending national and international net zero targets also mean that developers globally are having to make earlier investments in transmission infrastructure. An exponential increase in demand for scarce high-voltage cabling has already led to high-profile cancellations of offshore wind farms in the US<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026  Rising demand for rare earth metals used to make magnets in turbine generators has also been snared by geopolitical issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are just not enough boats:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00d8rsted ceased work on its 2.2GW Ocean Wind development zone off the coast of New Jersey in 2023, citing a vessel delay<\/a> in its decision to cancel the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the advocacy group WindEurope, demand for vessels capable of installing foundations and turbines and laying cables will outstrip availability<\/a> within the next five years. The gap between the two is forecast to skyrocket between 2028 and 2030<\/a>\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delays caused by these issues can result in a problem known as \u201ccontract erosion\u201d<\/a>. In their contracts, developers have a commissioning window within which turbines have to start generating. If they are not operational within this time, they lose their subsidies on a day-by-day basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, the market hath spoken:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rising costs mean that even one of the world\u2019s biggest wind farms, Dogger Bank in the North Sea, will not be profitable<\/a> for its developer, Equinor. As a prospect for generating financial returns, renewable energy still cannot compete with oil and gas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the key argument of economic geographer Brett Christophers in his recent book The Price is Wrong<\/a>. Christophers argues that, if national governments continue to rely so heavily on private sector investment to build renewable energy, decarbonisation is unlikely to proceed as fast as it needs to. It is simply not profitable enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the government had got out of the way and let the market speak twenty years ago without hiding the truth under a bonanza-fog of subsidies, we wouldn\u2019t have wasted twenty years and trillions of dollars to find out it was not going to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

_____________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*In 2019 The Conversation<\/em> gave up conversing and banned skeptic<\/a>s. Thus, they became \u2014 The Conversion.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s so unfair, the wind is free, but who could have known we\u2019d need metals, boats, cables, and magnets?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":388574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691822437,691818154,691818301,691836563,691822570,691836560,691836561,691818373,691836562],"class_list":{"0":"post-388569","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-orsted-2","9":"tag-net-zero","10":"tag-offshore-wind","11":"tag-prices-rise","12":"tag-rising-costs","13":"tag-the-conversion","14":"tag-thomas-york","15":"tag-uk-government","16":"tag-wind-farm-developers","18":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/OIG-2023-11-13T120832.243.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1D5f","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":422912,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=422912","url_meta":{"origin":388569,"position":0},"title":"Plans for huge wind farm paused over \u2018unfair\u2019 grid\u00a0charges","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/24\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"A huge wind farm planned off the north coast of Scotland will not be built unless \"unfair\" transmission charges are overhauled, the developer has warned.","rel":"","context":"In \"huge wind farm\"","block_context":{"text":"huge wind farm","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=huge-wind-farm"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0AQNXYKVg3bZ-Nf-PVHgHbIptd6FrxsCQjga09w1u-Ntc6EE9Vu_McsHW1ocYdlFqP5ukpP0SJ0yBEkC4exZ9vPuuqDuJxQNAwqrx8OEGs8h0verNrsRKZUIHgx8E-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C565&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0AQNXYKVg3bZ-Nf-PVHgHbIptd6FrxsCQjga09w1u-Ntc6EE9Vu_McsHW1ocYdlFqP5ukpP0SJ0yBEkC4exZ9vPuuqDuJxQNAwqrx8OEGs8h0verNrsRKZUIHgx8E-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C565&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0AQNXYKVg3bZ-Nf-PVHgHbIptd6FrxsCQjga09w1u-Ntc6EE9Vu_McsHW1ocYdlFqP5ukpP0SJ0yBEkC4exZ9vPuuqDuJxQNAwqrx8OEGs8h0verNrsRKZUIHgx8E-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C565&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0AQNXYKVg3bZ-Nf-PVHgHbIptd6FrxsCQjga09w1u-Ntc6EE9Vu_McsHW1ocYdlFqP5ukpP0SJ0yBEkC4exZ9vPuuqDuJxQNAwqrx8OEGs8h0verNrsRKZUIHgx8E-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C565&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0AQNXYKVg3bZ-Nf-PVHgHbIptd6FrxsCQjga09w1u-Ntc6EE9Vu_McsHW1ocYdlFqP5ukpP0SJ0yBEkC4exZ9vPuuqDuJxQNAwqrx8OEGs8h0verNrsRKZUIHgx8E-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C565&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":349016,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=349016","url_meta":{"origin":388569,"position":1},"title":"Supposed Guardians of Rhode Island\u2019s Waters Sell Out to Big Wind","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/26\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Once considered Rhode Island\u2019s most esteemed environmental Non-Profit, Save the Bay Rhode Island is now failing to operate in accordance with its mission. With the nation\u2019s first offshore turbine farms, one of the largest marine construction projects in history, going live in waters just 12- 24 miles off the Rhode\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Environment\"","block_context":{"text":"Environment","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=environment"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Drone_view2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Drone_view2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Drone_view2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Drone_view2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Drone_view2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":394481,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=394481","url_meta":{"origin":388569,"position":2},"title":"The Trouble With Offshore\u00a0Wind","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/11\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Offshore wind harvesters are supposed to be one of the answers to the \u201cclimate crisis.\u201d It seems unlikely to me. We know and have discussed one of the major weaknesses of this generation mechanism, its\u00a0unpredictability. In a rational world, that alone would discount it as the go-to for any modern\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Aviation and radar\"","block_context":{"text":"Aviation and radar","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=aviation-and-radar"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/AQMqMmQokZhSf57SBrGq5qSj2FQwPYb2-n_Ng4m6m67EzBc7AXMfJGrcc4s2UNxzgaOT4IuGptXkJts-82fhSxEL_iJvzs_0V-VRho-zcQ5OAucO6ES3HVVgAM9QTKg3CwpmPaq2KHkhYtfGenKKTbW7dfMvcg.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/AQMqMmQokZhSf57SBrGq5qSj2FQwPYb2-n_Ng4m6m67EzBc7AXMfJGrcc4s2UNxzgaOT4IuGptXkJts-82fhSxEL_iJvzs_0V-VRho-zcQ5OAucO6ES3HVVgAM9QTKg3CwpmPaq2KHkhYtfGenKKTbW7dfMvcg.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/AQMqMmQokZhSf57SBrGq5qSj2FQwPYb2-n_Ng4m6m67EzBc7AXMfJGrcc4s2UNxzgaOT4IuGptXkJts-82fhSxEL_iJvzs_0V-VRho-zcQ5OAucO6ES3HVVgAM9QTKg3CwpmPaq2KHkhYtfGenKKTbW7dfMvcg.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/AQMqMmQokZhSf57SBrGq5qSj2FQwPYb2-n_Ng4m6m67EzBc7AXMfJGrcc4s2UNxzgaOT4IuGptXkJts-82fhSxEL_iJvzs_0V-VRho-zcQ5OAucO6ES3HVVgAM9QTKg3CwpmPaq2KHkhYtfGenKKTbW7dfMvcg.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/AQMqMmQokZhSf57SBrGq5qSj2FQwPYb2-n_Ng4m6m67EzBc7AXMfJGrcc4s2UNxzgaOT4IuGptXkJts-82fhSxEL_iJvzs_0V-VRho-zcQ5OAucO6ES3HVVgAM9QTKg3CwpmPaq2KHkhYtfGenKKTbW7dfMvcg.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":336908,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=336908","url_meta":{"origin":388569,"position":3},"title":"The Titanic scale of floating wind turbines quantified","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/18\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"My regular readers know that I have often referred to the huge size of floating wind turbine assemblies. They are much bigger than fixed offshore wind turbine assemblies because there is a big float attached. 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And that\u2019s just to focus on the economics. Then there\u2019s the mounting and irreparable environmental harm \u2013 ecologically destructive and deadly to marine mammals, as well as fishing grounds and the livelihoods depend on them.","rel":"","context":"In \"dolphins death\"","block_context":{"text":"dolphins death","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=dolphins-death"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/zScreenshot-2023-11-03-111148-1024x611-1.webp?fit=1024%2C611&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/zScreenshot-2023-11-03-111148-1024x611-1.webp?fit=1024%2C611&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/zScreenshot-2023-11-03-111148-1024x611-1.webp?fit=1024%2C611&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/zScreenshot-2023-11-03-111148-1024x611-1.webp?fit=1024%2C611&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=388569"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":388575,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388569\/revisions\/388575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/388574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=388569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=388569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=388569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}