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US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

bbc.com

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Re: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

#121
post #87
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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This is blatantly untrue: https://www.cleanenergywire.org/sites/default/files/Fig2_Gro...

Correct;

On July 9, 2026, the Bundestag passed Germany's new electricity-capacity law, which subsidizes reserve/dispatchable power capacity as coal is phased out. SPD and CDU/CSU voted for it; the Greens and Die Linke voted against it.

The Greens specifically argued against a long-term fossil-fuel lock-in, while Die Linke argued for renewables and batteries instead of subsidizing new fossil gas plants.

The law itself is primarily about new hydrogen-ready/gas-capable reserve plants, not coal plants.

Source: https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2026-07/kraftwerksge...

Re: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a perverse incentive against ecology, case in point. Hear me out. We take citizen’s money to subsidize energy so they can get their energy for cheaper (at marginal level - while still paying the subsidy’s taxes) so they can undertake industrial/residential projects that we wouldn’t do with less energy. In a word, we incentive people to consume more (in a consumerist sense), which is bad for ecology, because we…

won't happen with capitalism which has an emphasis on economic growth forever...

Does the env work better in a communist country like North Korea? Or in the Soviet Union? Or are we gonna do no true Scotsman and say Soviet was always capitalist and had no connection to communism?

Re: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

#124

Hopefully they take the money and use to to build more wind turbines in Europe I guess. Absolutely shameful what the USA has become.

>RWE said that it will now reinvest the sum into conventional gas projects, including $900m (£669m) in a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal project in Louisiana.

Yeah, they say that, but I wonder how much of it is just to make the Trump admin happy.

Like, I don't doubt that they will go and build gas projects, and might even use some of this money to kickstart it, but presumably RWE was already pretty far along the pipeline of preparing this offshore buildout, and there's likely a lot equipment orders, staff, ships, etc that they'd rather not cancel, and would rather redirect into another project if they can.

Maybe that's copium from me though, just sad to see a big wind project go to waste.

Re: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

#125

US has absurdly large domestic energy resources like gas reserves, coal reserves, uranium, and thermal energy infrastructure. Then, there is the supply chain argument: the specialized turbines, components, vessels and manufacturing chains are manufactured overseas and imported to support Wind. RWE is itself German. It’s good to reduce dependence on foreign supply chains. Fishing and maritime was also cited as a conce…

> It’s good to reduce dependence on foreign supply chains.

Huh? That’s quite a whopper to drop as if it’s an obvious truth.

It’s good to diversify supply chains. Eggs-in-one-basket is bad for many reasons, even if it’s your own domestic basket.

Trade interdependence is good for competition, reduces risks from disasters, and creates disincentives for war.

And the market apparently thinks offshore wind is a good investement for the US, to the point where the government has to pay companies not to do it.

Re: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

won't happen with capitalism which has an emphasis on economic growth forever...

Does the env work better in a communist country like North Korea? Or in the Soviet Union? Or are we gonna do no true Scotsman and say Soviet was always capitalist and had no connection to communism?

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Re: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

#127

Meanwhile China is becoming entirely energy independent and electrifying their economy. I don't understand how the US doesn't see that they won't be top dog forever especially in this multipolar age.

They still mostly rely on coal. Slightly more than half of electricity is generated by burning coal, whereas in the US, it's only 15%. The renewable energy share in generation is roughly the same in the US and China, but not for capacity.

You can look at current levels, or look at trends. China has stopped increasing coal. They're building a small number of new coal plants, but this is outstripped by the coal plants being underutilized or decommissioned

China is really only building new renewables, almost 100x as much net renewable capacity per year compared to nuclear.

Re: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

#128
post #68

> Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement posted on X that Americans deserve an energy system built on common sense and not one dependent on "costly subsidies". I agree. This is why we are building offshore wind and not subsidizing fossil fuels, right?

It's even dumber than that. Someone built a wind farm near Trump's golf course in Scotland and now he hates wind farms: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c15l3knp4xyo . He thinks they're ugly and noisy.

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Re: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

#129
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not great for the wildlife during drilling but it's better than the carbon rich alternatives.

Nothing is great for wildlife, including leaving it alone and undisturbed, because nature doesn't care if animals are happy, or even if they exist.

I’m thinking you mean that nature does not possess the ability to care at all.

Re: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

#130
is it just me or does that seems to be a decision driven fully by a personal dislike of wind energy without having actually run the numbers, or in other words the art of a deal isn't that

like yes there was binding commitment to RWE getting some level of subsidies, hence he had to "pay them of" around the amount of profit they have likely list, and probably more

but... compared to not paying that much more in subsidies _and_ getting more electricity out of it which the US seem to currently be quite tight one this seems to be a terrible bad deal

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EDIT: Sorry for the rant below, it's just pretty annoying how dishonest non fact based politics has been becoming where I live:

furthermore you can stop future subsidies, so if wind energy is as "fake" as he claims this is something RWE would be stuck with not them, even if it drive them bankrupt it wouldn't be a USA problem (and more a German one)

so the only way this deal makes sense is if you a) hate wind energy and want it cone irrationally b) know it actually works and as such would "stay around" for sure (or if you really really really care about birds, no way this is true for Trump)

(And also practically it already has proven that off shore wind farms can work profitable, so b, isn't really a question. But I guess if you have a president who says all the wind farms in China are fake for show while China produce roughly as much wind energy as all of the EU together then sure you can't except logic).

In general the amount of nonsense you hear when it comes to the topic of renewable energies is pretty crazy both in how people "proof how bad it is" .. based on early technology from well over 20+ years ago, systematically ignoring relevant components of a complete solution, pretending certain already in-use technologies don't exist and don't make sense etc. To ignoring issues with whatever technology they favor and often comparing wrongly calculated "non subsidized" renewable prices with "highly subsidized" non renewable prices. Don't get me wrong it also is done the other way around. But at least where I live, that direction of propaganda isn't really relevantly used while the other direction is spread everywhere non stop (while also pretending that any honest calculation is supposedly "faked" because it doesn't fit their world view).

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