{"id":390230,"date":"2025-07-22T18:08:51","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T16:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=390230"},"modified":"2025-07-22T18:09:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T16:09:46","slug":"the-conversation-renewable-energy-still-cannot-compete-with-oil-and-gas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=390230","title":{"rendered":"The Conversation: \u201crenewable energy still cannot compete with oil and gas\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guest Essay by Eric Worrall<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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First published JoNova<\/a>; Even in green energy subsidised Britain, developing renewables does not make economic sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why wind farm developers are pulling out at the last minute<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published: June 10, 2025 2.41am AEST
Thomas York<\/a>
Postgraduate Researcher in Human Geography, University of Leicester<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government aims to generate<\/a> at least 43GW of offshore wind power (current capacity is 14.7GW<\/a>) and 95% of all energy from renewable sources by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These targets are now in jeopardy. The cancellation of Hornsea 4 follows a similar decision<\/a> by Swedish developer Vattenfall, which stopped work on its 1.4GW Norfolk Boreas wind farm in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/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. This affects the profitability forecasts of wind energy developers like \u00d8rsted and the viability of each of their projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/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

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Read more:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/theconversation.com\/why-wind-farm-developers-are-pulling-out-at-the-last-minute-256842<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The call for government funding magic sauce to fix the economic failures of green energy is hilarious. Government funding can\u2019t fix a failure of this magnitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Study: Climate Change is Reducing Wind Speeds in Europe<\/a><\/blockquote>