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Vestas Cutting Jobs Despite Leading Wind Installations

March 22, 2022

Vestas occupies the top spot when it comes to market share among global wind turbine manufacturers, according to a new analysis, but the Danish business is not immune to the challenges facing several of the leading companies in the wind power sector.

Supply chain issues are buffeting wind energy, as they have other industries. Though Vestas Wind Systems A/S continues as the leading manufacturer of wind turbines, according to a GlobalData report released March 22, the company also this month announced it plans to cut at least 275 jobs, including 75 in Denmark, in what it termed a “highly volatile environment” for the sector. A Vestas spokesperson in a statement said the group wants to balance “2022 priorities and long-term growth” for the company, with the job cuts part of “adjusting our activities and organizational setup.”

It’s the latest round of job cuts for the wind energy giant. A POWER analysis of Vestas’ announcements found the company has jettisoned nearly 2,000 jobs from its manufacturing facilities in Denmark, the UK, Germany, and Colorado since September 2019.…

Growth in Renewables Continues Despite Drop in UK Power Generation

January 8, 2019

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Renewable energy sources increased their share of the UK’s electricity supply in 2018, with new wind farms and biomass plants helping renewables contribute a record 33% of the country’s power in the past year. Coal-fired units, meanwhile, saw a 25% drop in their output, with coal providing about 5% of the country’s total generation.

The UK has said it wants to phase out all coal generation by 2025.

An analysis by Carbon Brief, a UK-based climate science and energy policy group that advises the government, in a report released Jan. 3 noted that the amount of electricity produced in the UK last year was at its lowest level since 1994, despite sustained population growth during the period, including an increase of 6 million people since 2005. Analysts said the reduced need for power is due to increasingly efficient use of energy and the country’s changing economy.

Carbon Brief’s report noted 335 TWh were generated by UK power plants last year, a drop of about 1% from 2017.…

Despite Financial Hurdles, Utility Capital Spending to Remain Elevated

December 31, 2018

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Despite higher taxable income and pressure on balance sheets, capital spending by regulated utilities will remain elevated—and much of it will be dedicated to replacing aging infrastructure, hardening or efficiency-boosting measures, and on renewables and environmental projects, said Moody’s Investors Service in a recent sectoral briefing.

The credit ratings agency for the first time this June downgraded the regulated utility sector from stable to negative, pointing to a surge in financial risks as more individual companies funnel funds to debt. In a Dec. 14 briefing, Moody’s said utilities will claim less in depreciation expenses and have higher taxable income under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and most are starting to pay cash taxes as early as 2019 or 2020.

However, several utilities are still involved in extensive improvement projects, it said, warning: “This could put pressure on balance sheets depending on how much debt is used in the financing plans.”

An Unexpected Surge in Captial Spending

Capital spending for a group of 31 utility holding companies that the agency examined was expected surge to $ 100 billion in 2018, compared to $ 90 billion in 2017, Moody’s noted.…

New York Gas Plant Comes Online Despite Opposition

October 2, 2018

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The Valley Energy Center in Orange County, New York, entered commercial operation on October 1 despite complaints from local officials and area residents about noise from the plant, among other concerns.

Community members spoke out against the plant at public hearings last week, saying they have felt sick when the plant has undergone test runs over the past several months. Orange County officials and local politicians said they support a decision by the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) not to renew the air permit for the plant, though the plant is allowed to operate while a court decides the permit issue.

The DEC has said the plant needs a federal Title V air permit. Competitive Power Ventures (CPV), the plant’s operator, has argued it has one year to obtain the permit after beginning full-time operation.

The Valley Energy Center is a 675-MW gas-fired plant in Wawayanda. It was originally scheduled to begin commercial operation in February, but its opening was delayed because the DEC had not finished permitting Millennium Pipeline Co.’s…

EPA Rampaging on Coal Ash Rule Despite Groundwater Concerns

April 27, 2018

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Despite pleas by environmental groups for more time to review recent dumps of groundwater monitoring data from power companies, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is forging ahead to finalize a proposed overhaul of the Obama administration’s 2015 final Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) rule.

The EPA’s 45-day comment period for the agency’s March 1 proposed rule, which includes more than a dozen significant changes to the 2015 action, is slated to end on April 30. Most of the rule’s changes focus on providing more regulatory flexibility to owners of coal ash landfills or surface impoundments, and they explicitly give states the authority to operate CCR permit programs “in lieu of federal regulations,” as long as they are agency-approved. According to the EPA, those changes are expected to save industry between $ 32 million and $ 100 million per year.

However, the proposal also seeks to address four provisions that a federal court remanded to the agency in June 2016. Those changes, for example, propose a clarification of the type and magnitude of non-groundwater releases that would require a coal plant to comply with corrective action procedure, and it adds boron to a list of constituents that may trigger corrective action.…

More U.S. Coal Units Closing Despite Possible Market Pricing Change

November 22, 2017

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U.S. utilities continue to announce closures of financially troubled and older coal-fired power plants even as government officials work on a bailout plan to keep them operating.

Owners of a coal plant in Montana that has only been online since 2006 informed the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) last week of plans to shutter the facility early next year if they can’t find a buyer. The news comes at the same time Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities (LG&E-KU) said it would close two long-running coal-fired units at the E.W. Brown Generating Station near Harrodsburg, Kentucky, in February 2019.

The announcements are the latest in a series of closures announced in recent months, including three large coal-fired plants in Texas—two operated by Vistra Energy and another by Luminant, a Vistra subsidiary—that generate about 4.2 GW of electricity, or about 12% of the state’s coal-fired generation capacity. Another large Texas plant, CPS Energy’s 840-MW Deely station in San Antonio, is scheduled to close in 2018.…