Dark times, quiet times
On seasonal weather, too-big-to-fail turbine builders, and wind thieves
Ah, summer. The season of fun in the sun and wind, the season of peak solar and lots of non-rotating turbines, based on my very recent experience during a trip to Romania through its top wind location in the southeast. Alas, all good things must come to an end. Dunkelflaute season is coming.
As the windless, sunless months of November, December, January and February loom large on the horizon, one company has made a significant discovery. Dunkelflaute represents a critical problem for the wind industry, it warned. Also for energy security but that’s not important. The important thing is that Ørsted just arranged a government bailout via a rights issue worth over $9 billion.
That means Ørsted is too big to fail, from the Danish government’s perspective. Just how long it will remain so and how many others will be considered equally too big to fail is the question governments in Europe need to start asking themselves right about now. Because dunkelflaute is not going away. It’s only going to get worse as the number of turbines and panels continues growing.
