The woes in the renewable energy sector continue unabated. We’ve heard a number of headlines of jobs being lost in the solar industry – now jobs are being lost in wind as well.
According to news reports, the world’s largest wind tuirbine manufacturer, Vestas, will lay off another 2300 workers worldwide, along with a possible additional 1600 jobs in the USA. The reason is sluggish demand. The company also announced the closure of a number of facilities. Last year the company had laid off 3000 employees.According to the German language CO2 Handel, 1300 jobs will be lost at the headquarters in Aarhus Denmark.
The wind turbine manufacturer had again lowered its forecast for sales turnover for 2011 and now expects 6 billion instead of 6.4 billion euros in turnover.”
The company no longer believes it’ll make a profit. CBS News writes:
…a potential slowdown in the United States could also result in the layoff of an additional 1,600 employees there.”
and
Last year, Vestas laid off 3,000 workers after posting a 24 percent drop in the third quarter.”
According to Global Winnepeg, job losses in the USA will depend on whether or not the company will get more handouts from the taxpayers:
It said the U.S. layoff plans would mainly depend on whether the Production Tax Credit — which gives a favourable low tax rate to makers of renewable energy — would be extended or not. In 2010, Vestas was awarded about $51 million in tax credits through the U.S. federal stimulus program.”
“1300 jobs will be lost at the headquarters in Aarhus Denmark.”
They can make 1300 people redundant at the HQ? How will Denmark absorb such a legion of bureaucrats?
Oh I forget: They have a socialist government now. They will all get nice cosy jobs during the inevitable expansion of the public sector. Probably surveilling the decarbonization of Denmark. (I wanted to make a joke but it sounds like a prophecy; I think it will happen exactly that way.)
Maybe not.
http://scancomark.se/Regional/Danish-Public-sector-IT-jobs-sent-to-India.html
Give them a little time. New Labour managed to double the public sector during their reign in the UK. Helle Whatshername, the prime minister of Denmark, is married to a UK labour bigwig.
[…] Gone With The Wind – The Green Jobs Dream Is Disappearing […]
A prime opportunity for Steven Chu and DOE to rescue Vestas and pour hundreds of millions of tax payer money down the drain…just wait.
During business travels across northern Europe, it was great to see a few wind turbines. It seemed like a good idea and fitted in quite well with the stereotype image of the Netherlands especially. The novelty wears off quite fast, and then the war of the worlds by H.G.Wells seems to come to mind. There remains the nice idea of free energy at home with with home made wind and solar power, but I wonder where this nice idea really comes from. In thinking about my own reasoning, I suspect the desire for some independence came from films such as the Day of the Triffids and the original “Survivors” in the UK. Of course, along with this is the threat to mankind and idea of starting again only doing ot better which is a delusion. Perhaps the whole green thing is just a delusion.
Let’s go all the way. The Pole System.
http://www.anthonyratkov.com/pole_system
A Really Neat Concept. BTW: this is the guy who supplied Al Gore’s latest globe-wowing venture into … online gaming … with the idea of windmill-powered tractors.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/01/12/al-gore-games-the-climate/
http://www.anthonyratkov.com/wind-powered_vehicles
Chairman Mao would have turned Green with envy…
I can easily visualize what the pole system will look like after 30 or 40 years: a forest of rusty poles topped by the occasional rusting tangle of unrecognizable metal. They would be really tough to remove with all the poles set in concrete.
Therefore the Dutch wind mills were so much better. They were made of wood and straw and because of friction they burned down within a century leaving only clean ashes.
Dirk,
Please tell me this Ratkov guy is kidding…is this guy for real?
Dunno. A lot of his drawings look serious, like technical drawings of a three wheeled mini car. And they look OLD… like decades old. I think he’s some kind of lonely utopianist with his very own vision of the world.
[…] The Wind – The Green Jobs Dream Is Disappearing Posted on January 12, 2012 by jwalker From "green Jobs" – Google Blog Search: Gone With The Wind – The Green Jobs Dream Is Disappearing. By P Gosselin on 12. Januar 2012. […]
Oops!! I guess the memo didn’t reach the colonies in America.
http://www.dailyrecordnews.com/business/ellensburg-renewables-park-tests-a-variety-of-wind-turbines/article_5028b294-3d5c-11e1-9209-001871e3ce6c.html
You must understand, Ellensburg is a College Town, Central Washington College of Education, thus very liberal/green. It is also very windy, and being on the East side of the Cascade Mountains, very sunny. To everybody in town it makes perfect sense. Their corporate sponsor, Battelle, is almost completely supported by the U. S. Department of Energy, so you can see the whole mind-set.
“Some homeowners who install solar panels and eco-friendly ‘heat pumps’ have seen their energy bills increase more than eightfold because of bad installation.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/9008131/Overhaul-of-nations-homes-needed-to-meet-carbon-target.html
The irony