I had a glass of champagne with Vattenfall execs as we toasted the announcement this morning, and of course we were treated to fish'n chips for lunch. At the same time, possibly related to britain's inability to get it's shit together, Vattenfall has announced it is focusing on Sweden, Germany and Netherlands.

I have no time to comment on some of the major points brought out by the diary or comments.  But i can say i haven't seen the industry in general hit so hard in many years.  All the effort to build up secure component supply chains has been for naught, as framework contracts are allowed to lapse and turbines are sitting at shipping terminals and even airports with nowhere to go.

To a small degree, this is partly an effect of the major players and North Sea governments using focus on offshore wind to ignore the blatant need for further use of the far cheaper, almost risk-free onshore resource. The manufacturing chain is hurting like i haven't seen in a decade or more.

to a larger degree, this is now the effects of the energy and banking wars indicative of the end of the fossil era.

the comment is also an indictment of amurkan energy policy, which has now reached the level of criminally ridiculous. the US DOE is in the process of committing to an aggressive offshore policy, while the vast potential of US onshore has been given a further kick in the ass, as the companies who thought the ~US onshore market secure enough to invest in CAPEX are taking the financial hit deeply.

offshore must progress, to bring costs and risk down, and to bring the level of the technology up to onshore standards. but at the expense of the polluting technologies, not at the expense of onshore wind.

Can't write more now, but thought a brief report from the field was in order.

PS. one of the joys of Husum is that there are 25,000 people here, with several hundred hotel rooms within 25 km.  so people stay at vacation homes up to a 100 km away, even across the border in Denmark. net access in the boonies is non-existent (though my stick is working in town now) makes it fun.

and there are some very interesting technical developments here. peace.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin