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MOUNT STORM, WEST VIRGINIA – AUGUST 22: Turbines from the Mount Storm Wind Farm stand in the distance behind the Dominion Mount Storm power station August 22, 2022 in Mount Storm, West Virginia. The wind farm includes 132 2-megawatt Gamesa G80 wind turbines along 12 miles of the Allegheny Front. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images News | Getty Images

It’s been a tough couple of years for the U.S. wind energy industry. Despite mounting pressure to combat climate change by transitioning to renewable sources, a confluence of factors disrupted supply chains and upended the economics of project financing. Rising inflation and interest rates, the war in Ukraine, and reduced tax incentives have plagued wind turbine manufacturers and developers of both land-based and offshore wind projects.

Nonetheless, today there’s an air of optimism within the industry, driven in large part by billions of dollars in new tax credits and subsidies toward clean energy investments included in the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. Although 2023 is expected to remain sluggish, GE Renewable Energy, Siemens Energy and Vestas Wind Systems, the leading makers of wind turbines — outside of China, which has built the world’s largest wind energy infrastructure — and their suppliers are banking on growth over the next decade, particularly in the nascent offshore wind niche.

“The wind energy market is stuck in this very strange paradox right now,” said Aaron Barr, an industry analyst at Wood Mackenzie. “We have the best long-term climate policy certainty ever, across all the largest markets, but we’re struggling through a period where the whole industry, particularly the supply chain, has been hit by issues that have culminated in destroying profit margins and running many of the top OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] and their component vendors into negative profitability territory.”

Barr pointed to turbines that were sold to project developers back in the 2020-21 timeframe, when OEMs’ capital expenditures and pricing had been steadily declining. Then, over the last two years, as it came time to deliver the turbines, “the costs of raw materials, specialized logistics and labor skyrocketed through the roof, which has left those OEMs holding the bag on profitability,” Barr said.

And it’s a hefty bag. Last November, Siemens Gamesa (since absorbed into Siemens Energy) reported a net loss of more than $943.48 million for its fiscal year that ended September 30. In a November interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe,” CEO Christian Bruch said there were “challenges in wind,” especially when it came to supply chains.

Siemens Energy wind business is stabilizing, CEO says

In January, three months after GE announced it was laying off 20% of its U.S. onshore wind workforce, GE Renewable Energy posted a loss of $2.24 billion for 2022, compared to a decline of $795 million the previous year. Even so, CEO Larry Culp expressed a sanguine tone when speaking with analysts. “While the demand drop due to the [production tax credit] lapse significantly impacted our renewables results in 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act is a real game-changer for us and the industry going forward,” he said.

In early February, Vestas reported a 369% drop in operating profit for 2022, which it attributed to geopolitical uncertainty, high inflation and supply chain constraints. The turbine manufacturer recorded a EBIT loss of more than $1.2 billion last year, compared to about a $456 million gain in 2021.

The wind market’s paradox was further revealed in recent quarterly numbers from the American Clean Power Association, which represents companies in the U.S. renewables industry. The fourth quarter of 2022 was the year’s best, as wind, solar and battery storage sectors installed 9.6 gigawatts (GW) of utility-scale clean energy capacity, enough to power two million homes. And yet, it was the lowest fourth quarter since 2019.

For all of 2022, the industry installed 25.1 GW of renewables capacity, according to the ACP, marking a $35-billion capital investment — but that marked a 16% decline from the record year in 2021 and a 12% decline from 2020. Focusing solely on wind energy, there was a similar good news-bad news conundrum. Land-based wind ended 2022 with its strongest quarter, commissioning 4 GW of new projects. Even so, the ACP said, the total of 8.5 GW installed for the full year reflected a 37% year-over-year drop, mostly due to the declining value of the production tax credit, which expired for new projects at the end of 2021.

The IRA, however, reestablishes the PTC and offers other attractive incentives to the wind industry, and in total, it is estimated that the IRA will drive investment of nearly $369 billion in clean energy and climate priorities, according to the ACP. In an update released Monday morning, the trade group says that’s already taking place, in the form of more than $150 billion in capital investment for utility-scale clean energy projects and manufacturing facilities in the past nine months, more than was invested in total between 2017 and 2021. Since August, the new report noted, 48 renewable energy facilities have been launched, expanded or reopened, including 10 wind manufacturing facilities. 

Wind manufacturing in the U.S. coming back

There are nearly 72,000 utility-scale wind turbines installed in the U.S., almost every one of them land-based, generating about 140 GW of energy or about 9% of the nation’s electricity. Many of them are produced by an increasingly complex domestic wind energy supply chain, steadily built up since the early 1980s, centered around turbine towers, blades and nacelles (housing atop towers that contain drivetrains), plus the myriad components required to assemble each one.

The industry’s supply chain disruptions resulted in reduced demand for new land-based turbine orders, forcing manufacturers to ramp down their operations, said Patrick Gilman, program manager for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind Energy Technologies Office. Yet those doldrums appear to be subsiding.

“Now that the IRA has passed and we have long-term policy certainty for basically the next decade, OEMs are either reopening or spinning back up mothballed factories, announcing new facilities and otherwise expanding production,” Gilman said, referring to the nation’s fairly mature land-based supply chain. Indeed, in early February, Siemens announced plans to reopen two turbine component factories that it had mothballed last year, adding that the IRA had sparked a pick up in demand.

Comparatively, the U.S. offshore wind industry is just ramping up after years of delays in permitting, environmental approvals and power purchasing agreements with utilities that buy wind energy. To help catapult the sector, in March 2021, the Biden administration set a goal of deploying 30 GW of offshore wind energy by 2030.

To date, there are only seven operational offshore wind turbines in the U.S., five off the coast of Block Island in Rhode Island and two off Virginia Beach, a Dominion Energy project that ultimately will feature 176 turbines. By comparison, elsewhere worldwide there were 246 offshore wind farms in operation at the end of last year — 134 in Asia and 112 in Europe — translating to 54.9 GW of energy spun from thousands of turbines, according to World Forum Offshore Wind.

The Orsted Block Island Wind Farm in this aerial photograph taken above the water off Block Island, Rhode Island.

Eric Thayer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

There is currently one offshore wind farm under construction in the U.S., Vineyard Wind 1, 35 miles off the coast of Massachusetts. The project is jointly owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Iberdrola, through a subsidiary of Avangrid Renewables, and GE will supply 62 Haliade-X turbines. With an estimated price tag of $3.5 billion, Vineyard Wind will begin generating power late this year, and when completed in 2024 will annually produce 800 MW of electricity. In the meantime, there are 17 other offshore wind projects on the East Coast in various stages of development.

GE’s turbines for Vineyard Wind, along with most of the project’s major components, are being exported from production facilities in Europe. Yet if that and other offshore wind farms are to meet the White House’s 2030 goal, it will require the rapid build-out of a U.S.-based manufacturing supply chain and at least $22.4 billion in investments between now and then, according to a report published in January by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Business Network for Offshore Wind and other partners.

The supply chain would include building 34 new manufacturing facilities, including specialized ports and vessels. If individual states and companies leverage their existing manufacturing capabilities in sectors such as land-based wind energy, oil and gas, and shipbuilding, the report said, this effort would generate significant workforce and economic benefits throughout the country, not just in coastal locations.

In anticipation of the East Coast offshore projects gaining momentum, Vestas, Siemens and GE each recently announced plans to build new turbine component factories in New York and New Jersey, though contingent upon securing orders and receiving state and federal funding. And as the prospects of building wind farms in deep waters off Maine, New Hampshire, Gulf Coast states, California and Oregon — in which conventional fixed-bottom offshore turbines are not feasible — the federal government is coordinating with OEMs to develop floating offshore turbines.

Last fall, the Biden administration initiated the Floating Offshore Wind Shot, which seeks to reduce the cost of this emerging innovation by more than 70% and deploy 15 GW by 2035. “We see floating offshore wind as one of the clean energy technologies with the most upside potential for deployment in the coming decades,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm at a related summit in February.

By and large, the U.S. wind energy industry is in good shape, if the short-term economic issues can be overcome. “It just has to get over this speed bump, most of which is driven by supply chain issues,” said Wood Mackenzie’s Barr. “If all the players involved can make it through the end of this year, we think the future is bright for the industry.”

The stakes are high. “To be crystal clear,” Bruch told CNBC back in November, “energy transition without wind energy does not work.”

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Trump admin halts $5 billion NY offshore wind project mid-build

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April 17, 2025

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Trump admin halts billion NY offshore wind project mid-build

Equinor Empire Wind
Photo: Equinor

In its most aggressive attack against offshore wind yet, the Trump administration halted the $5 billion Empire Wind 1, already under construction off New York’s coast.

Norwegian developer Equinor announced yesterday that it received notice from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) ordering Empire Wind 1 to halt all activities on the outer continental shelf until BOEM has completed its review. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum posted this tweet yesterday:

Burgum gave no indication of what insufficiencies there were in the approval process for the fully permitted offshore wind project, despite Trump’s recent declaration of a national energy emergency that speeds up permitting processes.

The commercial lease for the 810-megawatt (MW) Empire Wind 1’s federal offshore wind area was signed in March 2017 during the first Trump administration. It was approved by the Biden administration in November 2023 and began construction in 2024.

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The project is being developed under contract with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). Empire Wind 1, which was due to come online in 2027, has the potential to power 500,000 New York homes.

“Halting construction of fully permitted energy projects is the literal opposite of an energy abundance agenda,” said American Clean Power Association CEO Jason Grumet in a statement. “We encourage the administration to quickly address perceived inadequacies in the prior permit approvals so that this project can complete construction and bring much-needed power to the grid.”

As Electrek reported, Equinor secured $3 billion to finance Empire Wind 1 in January. The total amount drawn under the project finance term loan facility as of March 31 was around $1.5 billion. 

As of March 31, Empire Wind has a gross book value of around $2.5 billion, including South Brooklyn Marine Terminal (pictured above), which was expected to become the US’s largest dedicated port facility for offshore wind.

In response to BOEM’s stop work order, New York Governor Kathy Hochul issued the following statement:

Every single day, I’m working to make energy more affordable, reliable and abundant in New York and the federal government should be supporting those efforts rather than undermining them. Empire Wind 1 is already employing hundreds of New Yorkers, including 1,000 good-paying union jobs as part of a growing sector that has already spurred significant economic development and private investment throughout the state and beyond.

As Governor, I will not allow this federal overreach to stand. I will fight this every step of the way to protect union jobs, affordable energy and New York’s economic future.

Equinor says it’s considering appealing BOEM’s order.

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Jackery Earth Day Sale takes up to 50% off units with bonus savings, G-Force moto-style ZM e-bike at $800 off, Greenworks, more

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April 17, 2025

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Jackery Earth Day Sale takes up to 50% off units with bonus savings, G-Force moto-style ZM e-bike at 0 off, Greenworks, more

Leading today’s Green Deals is Jackery’s Earth Day Sale that is taking up to 50% off power stations, with many of them being marked down from the brand’s short-term Easter savings, complete with bonus savings. Among the lineup, we spotted the expandable Explorer 2000 Plus Portable Power Station bundled with a 500W solar panel at its $1,614 low. Coming up right behind it is G-Force Bikes’ Spring Sale with up to $800 in e-bike savings, the largest of which is on the moto-styled ZM All-Terrain Fat Tire e-bike that starts at $1,199 for an 80-mile trekking single-battery setup, with a double battery option not much higher. Lastly, we have a one-day-only new low price on the Greenworks 1,900 PSI Steel-Framed Electric Pressure Washer at $118, as well as a bonus cleaner attachment deal. Plus, all the other hangover Green Deals are in the links at the bottom of the page, like yesterday’s Earth Day savings on both Bluetti power stations and Lectric’s e-bike bundles, and more.

Head below for other New Green Deals we’ve found today and, of course, Electrek’s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.

Invest in sustainable power for on-the-go and home backup at up to 50% off with Jackery’s Earth Day Sale from $90

Jackery has officially launched its Earth Day Sale through April 25 which is lowering many of its previous Easter offers with up to 50% off a collection of power stations, solar generators, and some accessories – and we’re also seeing on-page promo codes for extra savings. One such bundle gives you the brand’s Explorer 2000 Plus Portable Power Station with a 500W solar panel for $1,614.05 shipped, after using the promo code EXTRA5 at checkout for an additional 5% off. It’s already coming down from its usual $2,949 price tag, with the bonus savings dipping that price further, back to the best we’ve seen from some of this year’s previous events. You’re looking at a combined 45% markdown here, putting $1,335 back in your pocket and equipping you with an expandable means for on-the-go and at-home backup power at the lowest price we have tracked. Like most of the deals in this sale, you’ll find this package beating out its Amazon pricing too, where it’s currently sitting $307 higher.

Grabbing this Jackery Explorer 2000 Plus bundle starts you off with a 2,042Wh LiFePO4 capacity that can support up to five extra batteries that increase things to 12,000Wh – plus, there’s the option to continue expansion with two of these setups being linked together to reach 24,000Wh. Power output here provides a steady 3,000W through the 10 ports, surging to 6,000W for larger needs, which becomes its regular output levels within expanded setups. It also has a 1,200W maximum solar input, which recharges the battery to full in two hours with six 200W panels (so around 5+ hours with the bundle here). You can also have the battery recharged via a wall outlet in two hours as well, though this doesn’t account for expandable setups.

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***Note: The extra 5% off discount has not been factored into the prices below – be sure to use the code EXTRA5 at checkout for the maximum savings!

Jackery Earth Day flash offers (through April 18):

Jackery’s Earth Day Sale home backup deals:

Jackery’s Earth Day Sale appliance backup deals:

Jackery’s Earth Day Sale outdoor backup deals:

Jackery’s accessory deals:

You can shop through Jackery’s entire Earth Day Sale on the landing page here.

G-Force ZM All-Terrain e-bike

G-Force Spring Sale drops moto-styled ZM all-terrain e-bike with 80-mile range to $1,199

G-Force Bikes is having a Spring Sale running through the rest of the month that is also being billed as a “last-chance sale” before prices increase due to tariffs, with the brand providing a countdown clock on its site. Among the up to $800 we’re seeing across the brand’s lineup of e-bikes, we spotted the ZM All-Terrain Fat Tire e-bike down at $1,199 shipped. Normally fetching $1,999 direct from the brand, with third-party sites pricing it as high as $2,499, the discounts we have tracked over the last year have mainly been seen dropping costs between $1,299 and $1,499. It’s getting the maximum savings during this sale at $800 off, dropping it to the lowest price we can find while also giving you a pair of HD wide-angle rearview mirrors free of charge, valued at $49.

The G-Force ZM e-bike borrows heavily from motorcycle styling while still retaining a street-legal class 3 status, equipped with a 750W brushless gear hub motor that can peak as high as 1,300W to deliver up to 86Nm of torque power, topping out at 28 MPH speeds. What’s more, for such an affordable price, it also provides some extensive traveling range, with the standard 20Ah single-battery option carrying you 60 to 80 miles with its five PAS levels or you can double that to 120 to 160 for just $200 more with the 40Ah dual-battery setup.

For such a low price, there’s a nice array of quality features that it brings along, like the full suspension, with an adjustable front fork and rear system for smoother riding, along with hydraulic disc brakes for guaranteed stopping power, and 20-inch puncture-resistant tires with fenders over each for those off-road ventures. That’s not all, as you’ll also find it has a 400-pound payload, a 48V LED headlight, an integrated rear light with braking functionality, a 7-speed Shimano derailleur, a wear-resistant padded bench seat with room for a passenger, a half-twist throttle for electric cruising, and a large color LCD with a USB port for charging up devices as you ride, particularly nice if you use your phone as a GPS.

G-Force’s other Spring Sale e-bike deals:

Greenworks 1,900 PSI electric pressure washer

Get rid of muck with this steel-framed Greenworks 1,900 PSI electric pressure washer at new $118 low (Today only)

As part of its Deals of the Day, Best Buy is offering the best rate yet on the Greenworks 1,900 PSI Steel-Framed Cold Water Electric Pressure Washer for $117.99 shipped. This model usually goes for $200 in full, with the discounts we’ve seen taking things as low as $120 over the past year. That rate is getting beaten out here by $2 for the rest of the day only, providing you a total of $82 in savings and marking a new all-time low. You won’t find this model currently available at Amazon, nor is it getting any discounts direct from Greenworks either. Below, you’ll also find a secondary one-day-only deal on a cleaning attachment that amplifies its capabilities.

Sporting a durable open steel frame design, the 13A motor on this Greenworks pressure washer provides you with up to 1,900 PSI at a 1.2 GPM flow rate to tackle the muck and grime along driveways, walkways, and the like. You won’t need to wrestle with pull strings, as it starts up with the press of a button, not to mention its electrical functionality, getting rid of the fumes and costs from gas – plus, it even has a waterproof plug at the end of its 35-foot power cord to ensure extra protection. You’ll have on-board storage for the included nozzles, the hose, and the metal spray gun, as well as an integrated soap tank for detergent when you need some extra cleaning power.

A secondary deal lasting the rest of the day that compliments the above or any of the brand’s pressure washers, is the 12-inch Surface Cleaner Attachment for $20.99 shipped, down from $40. It has a quick-connect feature for a faster and more effortless setup, with dual cleaning nozzles on its underside to level up the pressure washer’s cleaning power and coverage area.

Best Spring EV deals!

Best new Green Deals landing this week

The savings this week are also continuing to a collection of other markdowns. To the same tune as the offers above, these all help you take a more energy-conscious approach to your routine. Winter means you can lock in even better off-season price cuts on electric tools for the lawn while saving on EVs and tons of other gear.

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China cracks down on automated driving features after Tesla’s FSD launch

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5 hours ago

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April 17, 2025

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China cracks down on automated driving features after Tesla's FSD launch

Tesla FSD v12.5

Just after Tesla launched its ‘Full Self-Driving’ package, in China, the country announced that it cracking down on automated driving features with new limitations.

In February, Tesla launched a first version of its “Full Self-Driving” FSD package in China for owners with the latest “Hardware 4.0”, or “HW4”, vehicles.

Most of the features under Tesla’s FSD package have been limited to North America due to Tesla training its system for this market first and due to regulatory limitations in other markets.

Shortly after Tesla launched FSD in China, the American automaker had to pause its rollout due to updated requirements from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

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Now, MIIT has confirmed that it held a meeting with automotive industry stakeholders yesterday, and it has further clarified the rollout of advanced driver assistance (ADAS) features.

CNEV reported on the meeting:

Car companies were asked to refrain from using words like “self-driving,” “autonomous driving,” “smart driving,” “advanced smart driving,” and instead use the term “combined assisted driving” to avoid misleading consumers, according to the minutes of the meeting.

Tesla had already changed the name from ‘Full Self-Driving’ to “Intelligent Assisted Driving” following the launch in China.

Based on a statement from MIIT, the meeting focused on enforcing the previously announced updated requirements that launched right after Tesla introduced FSD in China (translated from Chinese):

The meeting emphasized that automobile manufacturers must deeply understand the requirements of the “Notice”, fully carry out combined driving assistance testing and verification, clarify the system functional boundaries and safety response measures, and must not make exaggerations or false propaganda. They must strictly fulfill their obligation to inform, and truly assume the main responsibility for production consistency and quality safety, and truly improve the safety level of intelligent connected vehicle products.

Regulators want automakers to reduce the frequency of new software updates and instead focus on extended testing before releasing new updates.

The last few months have been quite chaotic for ADAS systems in China. Along with Tesla’s FSD release, several Chinese companies released their systems, including BYD, Xiaomi, and Huawei.

Xiaomi reported a fatal accident in which its ADAS system was active just seconds before the crash, and Tesla owners using FSD racked up thousands of dollars in fines due to FSD making mistakes.

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