Major Wyoming Wind Project Delayed A Year Over Turbine Troubles

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Fri Jul 21, 2023, 08:56 AM - Edit history (2)

Major Wyoming Wind Project Delayed A Year Over Turbine Troubles

Construction of the Rock Creek II wind project in Albany and Carbon counties will be delayed a year as General Electric fails to deliver the turbines on time.

Kevin Killough
July 20, 2023
4 min read



A large staging area for wind turbines along Interstate 80 between Cheyenne and Laramie has been busy so far this summer. But another Wyoming wind project will be delayed a year because of problems with turbine manufacturers. (Greg Johnson, Cowboy State Daily)

Wyoming’s wind industry is feeling the impacts of problems plaguing wind turbine manufacturers. ... The Rock Creek II wind project will be delayed a year, according to documents filed with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality Industrial Siting Division. General Electric, the turbine manufacturer, provided “updated delivering information” to the state outlining the delay. ... The project is located north of Interstate 80 and straddles the Albany and Carbon county borders. When complete, it will provide 590 megawatts of intermittent electricity.

Last year, General Electric reported losses of $2.2 billion as a result of supply-chain issues, labor costs and inflation — problems many manufacturers are reporting.

{snip}

Struggling Industry

Citing increased cost and supply chain issues, as well as competition from other manufacturers, General Electric cut hundreds of jobs from its U.S. onshore wind energy group last fall. This represented 20% of its workforce in the sector. ... In 2022, the company reported a loss of $2.24 billion, which followed a $795 million loss the previous year.

The industry is facing significant financial struggles. Siemens, another turbine manufacturer, reported losses last year of nearly $1 billion. ... Vestas, a competitor of General Electric and Siemens, reported a loss of $1.2 billion in 2022. ... Both companies cited supply chains and inflationary pressure during their earnings calls.

Kevin Killough can be reached at [e-mail].

Wyoming does have the wind.

How Wyoming's Wind Will Impact Location Of New Multimillion-Dollar Shooting Complex

One huge factor that might play into communities lobbying to become home for a proposed multimillion-dollar shooting complex is Wyoming’s notorious wind.

Mark Heinz
July 17, 2023
4 min read



Selecting which Wyoming community will get a proposed multimillion-dollar shooting complex could come down to a number of factors — proximity to an airport, utilities at the building site and the availability of lodging and other amenities.

But one other factor could come into play. Wyoming’s notorious wind.

That point was raised by shooting enthusiast Jon Maestri of Sheridan in a recent email to Cowboy State Daily.

As a shooting complex task force appointed by Gov. Mark Gordon sets out to determine where a $10 million shooting complex could be built, wind velocities should be “seriously considered,” Maestri said.

{snip}

Mark Heinz can be reached at [e-mail].

[Think. Again.]

1. Interesting...

....that this one component of this specific industry is claiming such difficult and long term challenges based on 'supply chain' and 'inflationary' issues.

Those are issues that would be felt across every manufacturing industry and those are timeline delays that would basically shut human society down.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

2. You seem to be formulating some kind of theory ... so what is it?

One would think with the Inflation Reduction Act there'd be funds available to ramp up production for just this sort of project ...

[Think. Again.]

3. I agree...

...between the inflation reduction act and the fact that this is a relatively new and well-funded industry, I would think that financing and materials acquisition would be well under control.

It seems odd to me that across the board, multiple turbine blade manufacturers are having trouble delivering promised orders of specific fiberglass components but are cliaming such general reasons for those difficulties.

I wonder what the problem is...

EDIT:

I mentioned 'fiberglass' components, which would be the blades, although I have read other articles mentioning that getting the blades delivered is a problem for other installation projects, this article specifically mentions that the 'turbines' delivery is the cause of this delay.

[Think. Again.]

4. It might be worth...

...tracking the media sources that these reports are appearing in, there might be some pro-CO2 bias behind these articles.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

5. Me too ...

And looking at the pics and the size of the trailers involved in the delivery of the enormous metal stands, as well as the huge blades I often wonder just how much diesel do we burn to get all the parts into the places they need to be?

We're gonna have to be burning a messload of fossil fuels just to get our renewable electricity sources set up in the first place unfortunately.

[Think. Again.]

6. That's true...

...an effort like the energy transition will take a large investment in energy to achieve, and it's unfortunate that until it's achieved, that energy will have to come from the current CO2-emitting energy sources.

Hopefully, when the Biden administration begins publicly setting out the plan to achieve the transition, it will include a strong effort to reduce standard energy consumption during the transition period in order to offset the additional energy needed to make the transition happen.

I have faith in this administration.

[Finishline42]

9. The difference being...

With Wind and Solar what ever resources are used to manufacture, install and bring them online is the vast majority of their need.

Unlike fossil fuel energy generators you have to continue to use energy to supply those power plants with fuel to generate electricity.

The fuel that powers wind and solar is a resource granted by our environment. Doesn't matter if those windmills or solar panels only last 20 years - we didn't have to mine, drill, frack, etc continuously to supply the fuel to power them. We just need to find ways to store the energy when it's plentiful or build transmission lines to move it to where it's needed.

[Think. Again.]

8. This might have something to do with it...

I mentioned that I've read about other wind projects being stopped for "financial" reasons.

It seems that a few very large projects in the UK have recently claimed that unexpected construction costs are why they are being halted and as I read further I found this from:
https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2023-07-20/energy-firm-pulls-plug-on-major-wind-farm-to-power-15m-homes

For much of the past decade, offshore wind farms have been promised a fixed price for the electricity they produce through a so-called contract for difference (CfD).

This means that if electricity prices are below the promised price – known in industry jargon as the strike price – then companies get a subsidy to make up the difference.

Equally, if prices rise above that level then they have to pay back their additional gains.

Last year Vattenfall won one of these contracts to build the Norfolk Boreas wind farm at a joint record-low strike price of £37.35 per megawatt hour.

But since winning the auction, Vattenfall and others have warned that costs have increased far too fast for these projects to be economical anymore.

In March, Denmark’s Orsted warned that it might pause the Hornsea 3 project in the UK – expected to be the world’s largest wind farm when it opens – unless it gets help with surging costs. Hornsea 3 has the same £37.35 per MWh strike price as Norfolk Boreas.

So, apparently the installation of these off-shore projects was based on a promised fixed-price (strike-price) for the energy they would produce when completed, a price which would make it possible for the project to be completed based on construction costs at the time of the contract. However, that price is also a top LIMIT to what would be paid for the energy, and does not adjust for any variations in construction costs or inflation.

Recent higher construction costs would normally mean the energy produced would then have to sell for a higher cost, but the fixed-price contract doesn't allow for that, and so the companies building the projects have cancelled, probably hoping a new contract can be agreed on.

[hunter]

7. Ultimately of zero consequence for those of us who want save this world.

.