Imagine that Congress managed to eliminate the tax deductions that oil companies benefit from: what would happen? Would there be massive layoffs? Would plants shut down? Er, no, we’d just see a rise in cost of oil and gas. What happens when an “alternative energy” tax credit is not extended?
(CBS) Wind energy equipment manufacturer Siemens Energy Inc. will lay off 615 workers in Iowa, Kansas, and Florida in part because Congress has not renewed a tax credit for wind energy, the company said Tuesday.
Siemens said the biggest job losses will come in Fort Madison, Iowa, where 407 workers at a wind-turbine blade factory will be out of work. About 220 workers will be retained at the plant to support ongoing operations, spokeswoman Melanie Forbrick said in a statement.
The company blamed difficult market conditions due to lack of congressional action on a wind energy tax credit as well as increased use of natural gas-fired power plants. It said it has worked for the past 10 months to address the uncertainties but needed to adjust its work force until demand for turbines returns.
Without the tax credits (and government subsidies) many “green” energy companies cannot survive. The costs are already sky-high, and the only way to sell the wind turbines and get them operating is with those tax credits and subsidies. There’s only so much cost that can be passed on to the consumer, since wind and solar are already much more expensive energy sources than, say, natural gas.
We learn this information by way of Grist, which points out that those evil Republicans, and, hey, Harry Reid, are killing the tax credits and subsidies through inaction. Grist is highlighting a letter sent to Congressional leaders from 19 companies, asking that the credits be kept, and
The companies that signed the letter are lobbying to save a few bucks on their electricity bills.
Well, then why don’t they put up a whole bunch of wind turbines and solar panels on their own buildings at their own expense?
Teach please post the comparative costs for wind and coal. I think that you will be surprised. There is a reason why Germany is going towards wind and it is cost. Germany too has abundant coal. but wind is both cheaper and cleaner Wind costs keep going downm along with solar.
it will never get out of the House. They can kill everything
Wind power is twice as expensive as coal.
Because the chancellor wants the wind power at any costs. That is the real reason john.
Sorry, but you’re wrong on both counts.
In fact, Germany is looking to build 16 new coal-fired and 15 new gas-fired power stations by 2020. Why would they do that if wind was such a success? The answer is “because wind is a disaster.” The lack of consistent power from the wind turbines has lead to companies looking to install their own generators. As Germany looks to try and install more turbines off the coast, they are finding the technical issues overwhelming and cost prohibitive.
Wind power and solar may have a future as auxiliary or supplemental power, but they cannot produce consistent powers at levels to take over powering any power grid or part of a grid.
As an addendum to the last comment…wind power is not only more expensive and inefficient…It is deceitfully so. What you are not even seeing is the taxpayer subsidies that top the sundae. Take for example the “wind farm” off the coast of Alaska. Eleven wind turbines cost…(drum roll)….$65 Million Dollars. They got over one third of that from the damn stimulus program. That doesn’t even consider the maintenance and upkeep, and the underwater line run to the local electric company to convert the power.
On top of that, the 25 year deal between the wind farm and the electric company place the kilo watt cost 30% higher than the going rate of gas converstion to electric….AND THEY LOCKED IT IN FOR 25 YEARS!!!! I’ll give you three guesses what the life expectancy on a wind turbine is…
“In fact, Germany is being horribly caught out by precisely the same delusion about renewable energy that our own politicians have fallen for. Like all enthusiasts for “free, clean, renewable electricityâ€, they overlook the fatal implications of the fact that wind speeds and sunlight constantly vary. They are taken in by the wind industry’s trick of vastly exaggerating the usefulness of wind farms by talking in terms of their “capacityâ€, hiding the fact that their actual output will waver between 100 per cent of capacity and zero. In Britain it averages around 25 per cent; in Germany it is lower, just 17 per cent.
The more a country depends on such sources of energy, the more there will arise – as Germany is discovering – two massive technical problems. One is that it becomes incredibly difficult to maintain a consistent supply of power to the grid, when that wildly fluctuating renewable output has to be balanced by input from conventional power stations. The other is that, to keep that back-up constantly available can require fossil-fuel power plants to run much of the time very inefficiently and expensively (incidentally chucking out so much more “carbon†than normal that it negates any supposed CO2 savings from the wind).”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/9559656/Germanys-wind-power-chaos-should-be-a-warning-to-the-UK.html
A few Sunday morning links…
The University of Chicago Chooses Decline Real earnings for young college grads have fallen by over 15% since 2000, or by about $10,000 in 2011 dollars Siemans Plans Large Layoffs Over Wind Power Credit In MA, Prince Joseph III Jonah: Free Speech Isn…
Aaaacch! Fred beat me to the punch with a post I was going to, well, post later in the day!
[…] Siemans Plans Large Layoffs Over Wind Power Credit […]
[…] facilitate a greater number of people of the economy rather than only those who live in urban areas.// // One of the most traditional, old and basic kinds of energy is wind power. Wind power is being …DATA[ // ]]> One of the most traditional, old and basic kinds of energy is wind power. Wind power is […]
I work for Siemens. In a different division of the company. I can’t stand their “green” energy stuff.
This story just proves it’s not plausible without subsidy, proving at the same time that it’s not f’ing plausible period!!!
I’m glad you’re in a different division, Trish, cause the green stuff is going to fail, because they just throw money at the issue relying on taxpayer funding to prop it up.