Australia dodges an energy price spiral bullet

For Australia, it was – as 007 would have said – “a close run thing”.

With the Coalition about to take the reins – and the line up taking control of the Senate next July even more hostile to the great wind power fraud than we could have hoped for – Australia has just dodged a bullet – an energy price spiral bullet, that is.

The Coalition is all set to dismantle the greatest economic and environmental fraud in Australia’s history.

STT hears the RET review will be more of a woeful lament on how the best laid plans of mice and men get overrun by corporate low-lifes and hucksters.  The very fact of the review will be enough to spook already flighty investors and retailers.  The Business Council of Australia and Origin Energy are lining up to make sure the RET goes the way of the dodo.

STT predicts that – in the absence of some mental defect – from this point forward – retailers will not sign any more Power Purchase Agreements with wind power generators and, as a result, Banks will not lend a penny for construction of any new wind farms.

The only remaining source of finance is the Clean Energy Finance Corporation which the Coalition is about to take to with an axe.  Fair play to Tony – it was, after all, BORROWED money underwritten by Australian taxpayers.

Had the Green-Labor Alliance prevailed, Australia was headed the same way as Europe.

Europe’s “green” energy policy has become an economic suicide pact – with its manufacturers on the ropes and hundreds of thousands of homes disconnected from the grid because they simply cannot afford crippling renewables driven power costs.

Well – happy days are here – as “Action Man Abbott” is all set to tear up the suicide note written by the green Stalinists that almost ran Australia into the ground over the last 6 chaotic years.

The next blow Action Man Abbott lands will be
a knock-out blow for the great wind power fraud.

Here’s a tale from The Telegraph about Europe’s trip to the poor house, thanks to its insane rush to wind power.

Brussels fears European ‘industrial massacre’ sparked by energy costs
The Telegraph
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, in Cernobbio, Italy
8 Sep 2013

Europe’s industry is being ravaged by exorbitant energy costs and an over-valued euro, blighting efforts to reverse years of global manufacturing decline.

“We face a systemic industrial massacre,” said Antonio Tajani, the European industry commissioner.

Mr Tajani warned that Europe’s quixotic dash for renewables was pushing electricity costs to untenable levels, leaving Europe struggling to compete as America’s shale revolution cuts US natural gas prices by 80pc.

“I am in favour of a green agenda, but we can’t be religious about this. We need a new energy policy. We have to stop pretending, because we can’t sacrifice Europe’s industry for climate goals that are not realistic, and are not being enforced worldwide,” he told The Daily Telegraph during the Ambrosetti forum of global policy-makers at Lake Como.

“The loss of competitiveness is frightening,” said Paulo Savona, head of Italy’s Fondo Interbancario. “When people choose whether to invest in Europe or the US, what they think about most is the cost of energy.”

A report by the American Chemistry Council said shale gas has given the US a “profound and sustained competitive advantage” in chemicals, plastics, and related industries. Consultants IHS also expect US chemical output to double by 2020, while Europe’s output will have fallen by a third. IHS said $250bn (£160bn) in extra US manufacturing will be added by shale in the next six years.

European president Herman Van Rompuy echoed the growing sense of alarm, calling it a top EU priority to slash energy costs. “Compared to US competitors, European industry pays today twice as much for electricity, and four times as much for gas. Our companies don’t get the rewards for being more efficient,” he said.

Europe’s deepening energy crisis has for now replaced debt troubles as the region’s top worry, with major implications for the Commission’s draft paper on shale expected in October. The EU’s industry and environment directorates are pitted against each other. The new legislation could in theory stop Britain, Poland, and others going ahead with fracking.

“Personally, I am in favour of shale gas in Europe because we have to do more for industry,” said Mr Tajani.

Mr Tajani said the crisis is compounded by the tight monetary policy of the European Central Bank, which has failed to alleviate a serious credit crunch for small firms in Italy, Spain, and the eurozone periphery.

“The euro is far too strong and it is making it very hard for our companies to compete with the Chinese. We need a real central bank, like the US Federal Reserve or the Bank of England, willing to promote growth,” he said, in an unusually blunt criticism of a fellow EU institution.

“The ECB should be lending to small firms, just as the Bank of England is doing. It is impossible for us to bring down unemployment or cut our public debt without a strong industrial policy that revives small business,” he said.

Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the European liberals, said it is time to broaden the ECB mandate to include growth, warning that the eurozone is at risk of chronic stagnation and a “Japanese winter” unless the central bank goes beyond short-term measures.

Jean-Claude Trichet, the ECB’s former chairman, said the bank has already done everything it can, insisting that EU governments deliver on pledges for a banking union and economic reforms.
The Telegraph

Thank your lucky stars, Australia.  It could have been us.

Its great wind rush ensures dark days ahead for Europe.

One consolation for the Europeans is that it will not last too much longer.  The wheels are falling off as bankers are calling in their loans. Here’s Reuters on a huge collapse this week.

German wind farm developer Windreich files for insolvency
Reuters
9 September 2013

Windreich AG, Germany’s largest developer of offshore wind farms, has filed for insolvency and its chief executive has stepped down after financing talks for a 400 megawatt (MW) project stalled.

The company made its filing with a German court late last week and now its CEO Willi Balz, who also owns the group, has resigned effective immediately, Windreich said in a statement late on Monday.

“In talks with our investors it became clear that a change in management was a prerequisite for the successful continuation of talks,” Windreich’s new chief Werner Heer said.

Windreich plans, builds and sells wind parks and is a key player in Germany’s offshore wind park expansion.

Balz told Reuters last year that he hoped to sell the 400 megawatt MEG I project by the end of 2012, and that 700 million of the 800 million euros in equity needed for the project had already been committed.

Heer said in Monday’s statement that talks with institutional investors were now on the home stretch. He and Windreich’s other managers will write up a restructuring plan over the coming weeks that should leave MEG I unaffected and will present it to creditors and investors.

MEG I is a project to build a wind farm about 45 km north of the German North Sea island Borkum.  According to Windreich’s website, construction of MEG I is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2015.

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan and Alexander Huebner; Editing by Alison Williams)
Reuters