Germany Pulls Plug On Wind Energy… Wind Industry In “Severe Crisis”…Wind Giant Enercon To Lay Off 3000

German online weekly FOCUS here reports how cuts by wind energy giant Enercon will lead to 3000 layoffs. According to Enercon chief executive Hans-Dieter Kettwig, “politicians have pulled the plug on wind energy.”

German wind energy industry in turmoil. Photo: By Pierre Gosselin

Subsidies cut

Once lavished with huge incentives, the German wind industry is being hit hard after the government recently ended the huge subsidies that were once aimed at expanding the installation of wind energy capacity. Power grid operators had been struggling to keep the grid stable due to erratic feed-in and the subsidized feed-in of wind energy caused German electricity prices to become among the most expensive worldwide.

Fierce opposition from hundreds of protest groups

Moreover, hundreds of citizen protest groups have sprouted and since become a formidable force pushing for the stop of proposed wind projects. Not only have wind parks scarred the German landscape and destroyed biotopes nationwide, they have also been shown to be a real health hazard to humans living in their proximity through the low frequency infrasound they emit. Enough is enough, citizens say.

3000 job cuts in the works

FOCUS reports: “The crisis in the German wind energy industry is worsening. According to the ‘Süddeutsche Zeitung’, hard cuts at the largest German manufacturer Enercon will cost 3000 jobs.”

Next year Enercon will also cut contracts with suppliers, sending a wave of job losses across the industry. “If supply contracts are terminated as planned, many of these companies are threatened with extinction,” FOCUS reports.

FOCUS notes that the layoffs will hit regions that are already economically weak. “At the Aurich and Magdeburg locations, 1500 jobs will be cut, according to the company. At the company headquarters in Aurich, 250 to 300 jobs are affected.”

Stricter regulations for wind parks, greater setback distances

Not only have the subsidies for German wind parks been cut back, but also setback rules will become more strict in order to protect homes and residents from landscape blight and infrasound. In the future, wind parks will need to keep a greater distance away from residential areas. The current  CDU/CSU/SPD government wants to keep at least one kilometer between wind power installations and residential areas in the future. This will make many proposed projects impossible.

German Greens demand the industrialization of scenic landscape

The stricter setback rules have been sharply criticized by the wind industry, and particularly by German Green party leader, Annalena Baerbock: “The planned distance rules for wind turbines are devastating,” she told network Germany RND.

“Contrary to all public announcements, the federal government is thus making further expansion of wind power impossible. This is tantamount to a boycott of the Paris Climate Treaty and its own climate targets.” Baerbock also told RND: “The federal government claims to want to get out of coal but at the same time is stopping the expansion of wind power.”

27 responses to “Germany Pulls Plug On Wind Energy… Wind Industry In “Severe Crisis”…Wind Giant Enercon To Lay Off 3000”

  1. A C Osborn

    Shame about the employees, otherwise GOOD.

    1. Henning Nielsen

      Same story as with German solar power industry, they have also been decimated. 15 years ago they were the heroes of the new climate-saving industry, now many of those workplaces are gone.

  2. Kenan Meyer

    But this can’t stop them shutting down conventional power plants. Next in line is going to be nuclear power plant Philipsburg at 01/01/2020

  3. Stephen Richards

    20,000 wind turbines to be left rotting for the next 50 years as a monument to the stupidity of globalism and environmental stupidity

    1. Yonason

      At least we’ll be able to point to them if any future Leftist fools try to con us into that, or any other nonsense, again. “Look what you did last time. Now shut up and go away!”

      1. Bob Armstrong

        The Berlin Wall seems to have failed to get the point across , so I’m afraid the concrete boulders dotting farmland over vast regions won’t do it either .

        The drive for power by the determinedly dumb dishonest mediocrity is savage .

        1. Yonason

          Sadly, you have a good point.

    2. Mike

      How about creating a theme park around them? It could be unique and draw the crowds, and provide jobs for the locals.

      Historical museums are popular. I like those in the UK with the canals and barges, the industrial revolution blast furnaces and steam power.

      Or it could be a museum for useless inventions and curiosities connected with other mistakes of mankind.

      How about a Berlin wall? A model of the Titanic? a media center with Michael Fish – Englands most famous weatherman?

      What do you think?

      It is my idea so I expect free tickets and a free hotel room for one night.

  4. Russell

    It would be interesting to know if Annalena Baerbock lives a kilometre or less from a wind turbine. Any bets?

  5. Yonason

    Would this be a moment of sanity, or is the German Govt just running out of other peoples money?

  6. Yonason

    Thankfully, I no longer live in New England, which has become a bastion of Left Wing insanity.

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  9. Scott M

    I thought wind was cheaper than everything else, even without massive subsidies why cant they continue??

    1. Georgia Peach
      1. Yonason

        Nice link. Thanks.

        1. Yonason

          …just one little problem – the last paragraph.

          Although these impacts are significant, newer technologies are making wind turbines ever more friendly towards the surrounding environment, and as our energy demands grow, we can expect to see many more wind farms constructed across the world.

          That is TOTAL B.S.!

          Notice that it’s just a bald faced statement which the author doesn’t support with any links. There is no mitigation of infrasound, nor is there anyway to stop birds and bats from being hacked to death, nor can they not destroy the environment to erect ever bigger, uglier and more deadly monstrosities.

          But at least they do list some of the problems with wind turbines.

          Now here are a couple of links for “Georgia Peach”…

          http://www.caithnesswindfarms.co.uk/fullaccidents.pdf

          https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/lachlan-markay/2011/03/17/inconvenient-truth-wind-energy-has-killed-more-americans-nuclear

          …there were 35 fatalities associated with wind turbines in the United States from 1970 through 2010. Nuclear energy, by contrast, did not kill a single American in that time.

          Wind (and solar) = all pain, no gain.

  10. Harold

    Germany takes a first step away from the abyss of ultra expensive wind, but continues to close nuke plants. Germany remains a long way away from the miracle economy of cheap power it once was. But pols. have cronies to look after. The pols and Merkel have to take the blame.

    1. Henning Nielsen

      Germany will simply increase its dependence on Russian and Norwegian natural gas. As a Norwegian, I welcome this opportunity to screw up the price 🙂

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  12. Engineer-Poet

    Had Germany built nuclear instead of wind, even at the projected price of the first EPR at Olkiluoto, it would have its (average) electric needs met carbon-free for what the Energiewende will cost through 2025.

    Instead, there will be use of coal and gas until they run out.  Annalena Baerbock should be tried as a climate criminal by her own so-called principles.

  13. Jon Sutherby

    Population growth = increased energy demand. Increased conventional energy demand (oil and gas) = increased C02. The cause of the Global climate crises is right before our eyes…..over population. We all want increased GDP, stable dividends, corporate growth. You can’t get that without more consumers and you need more workers to create more production to create more GDP.

    We talk of alternate energy, what is it? As noted wind power causes unintended consequences, Bio fuels take potential food stock and turn it to energy (corn to ethanol)solar only works when the sun shines and oil and gas creates C02.

    Concentrate on removing C02 from the atmosphere, Stop cutting down our forests, educate the uneducated and work on reducing the global population.

    http://news.mit.edu/2019/mit-engineers-develop-new-way-remove-carbon-dioxide-air-1025

    People the problem is, there are too many people.

    1. tom0mason

      Jon Sutherby, CO2 does not control the climate!
      Unless you have verified irrefutable evidence of CO2 warming the atmosphere your sophistry is nothing but empty alarmism.

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  17. Yonason

    “Germany Pulls Plug On Wind Energy…”

    USA seems about to, as well.
    http://www.greenwichneighborsunited.com/no-congress-will-not-extend-the-ptc/

    I don’t doubt that Democrats will try to extend the PTC, but hopefully it will fail. It’s just to expensive, destructive and unreliable.

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