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Scientist exposes anti-wind groups as oil-funded, now they want to silence him

(electrek.co)
542 points xbmcuser | 2 comments | 27 Aug 25 06:49 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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nicolailolansen ◴[27 Aug 25 08:54 UTC] No.45037035[source]▶
Anti-wind groups are oil-funded? Surprised Pikachu.
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dzhiurgis ◴[27 Aug 25 09:36 UTC] No.45037306[source]▶
Why tho? Oil money should be funding renewables so they continue making money.
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PaulKeeble ◴[27 Aug 25 10:36 UTC] No.45037778[source]▶
Shell at one point started doing that in the UK, they installed a number of offshore wind turbines. Then they sold them and doubled down on oil.

What I think is really weird in the world today is the power companies don't seem interested in selling more power. A parallel branch of Wind and Solar companies are doing all the installations and running the power but not to the extent of bringing new capacity online, its all purely for replacing the old coal and gas systems. Quite a lot of companies are having to buy their own installations and run them so they can have their new data centre.

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1. qcnguy ◴[27 Aug 25 11:49 UTC] No.45038356{3}[source]▶
It's because renewables aren't what customers naturally want, that's why grids have to be forced to take their output using preference schemes and subsidies.

The financial modeling also relies heavily on the assumption of government preference (hard if there is a huge lobby who hates your guts) and wind speeds holding constant (wind speeds are falling and this is blowing holes in wind farm finances).

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2. eldaisfish ◴[27 Aug 25 12:35 UTC] No.45038800[source]▶
electricity customers want one thing - cheap, reliable power. Where it comes from does not matter unless there is a price on carbon emissions.

The electricity grid is not "forced" to accept anything. Places like Texas show that economic incentives work for renewable energy. In fact, economic incentives are stronger than disinformation.