With the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) dominating energy industry headlines around the globe, this was the week the EU rolled out its own heavy-hitters in what is increasingly seen as a trans-Atlantic battle to attract and keep the biggest and best players to drive their transitions away from fossil fuels.
The unveiling of the Green Deal Industrial Plan by EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen aims to offer a huge package of measures designed to counter the lure of the IRA, which has attracted rave reviews from key green technology sectors since it was signed into law by Joe Biden last year.
The EU plan is set to be aided by the considerable firepower of the European Investment Bank, whose president this week said it’s “imperative that Europe keeps up and stays the course”.
The immediate positive impact of the IRA, meanwhile, could be seen in US renewables giant NextEra's announcement it would bring a bumper 42GW of renewables capacity into service by 2026 thanks to what it described as the “transformational’ climate legislation, while Longroad's giga-scale King Pine onshore wind farm in the US northeast was given the green light.
Siemens Gamesa had another turbulent week as the embattled European wind turbine giant posted a near-$1bn loss for its financial first quarter, adding to a gloomy picture from western peers Vestas and GE.
The huge deficit was fuelled by charges relating to “failure rates in specific components” – but CEO Jochen Eickholt remained tight-lipped when pressedon exactly which parts or turbines are involved.
There was at least some good news for the German-Spanish OEM when a US court doubled the royalty payments GE must pay for patent-infringing Haliade-X turbines at the 1.1GW Ocean Wind 1 project off New Jersey. Both turbine-makers, however, were in the judge’s firing line for what he claimed was a spat over intellectual property that’s holding back the fight against climate change.
Recharge readers won’t have missed the spate of Chinese wind OEM announcements over recent months of new supersize turbine models, with the likes of Mingyang and CSSC Haizhuang unveiling machines with nameplates much mightier those seen in their Western peers' showrooms
That trend was placed in context in an exclusive opinion article for Recharge by Brinckmann renewables head Shashi Barla, who looked at the market conditions in China and beyond fuelling growth that he believes will see 25MW turbines soon.
