Jobs bloodbath at Brit, Danish wind turbine factories International wind-turbine maker Vestas has announced that it will lay off 1900 employees including 600 in the UK. The news was well received by markets, with Vestas raising £700m in a Danish share issue the next day and announcing investments in Chinese plants. Writing in the company magazine, Vestas president and CEO Ditlev …
Sounds like its time for a little of that ol' time chinese protectionism. Something like a tax on all chinese imports to make up the difference in wages. Sauce for the goose and all that.
Hell, why not dress it up in carbon; import duties for those that have increased their CO2 over 1990 levels. Oh and create a government own wind turbine producer and kick vesta out.
The only way you keep jobs is to fight for them, dirty.
There is a major problem with creating a protected jobs market, that is one of uncontrolled pricing. Once a company has a monopoly prices are no longer controlled by market forces and will generally increase well ahead of other goods.
What we are hoping for is surely an increase in wind driven electricity generation (and other renewables) and as such the last thing we want to be doing is pushing prices up.
I apologise. I really do. Up front. But I've been reading about these kinds of moves so many times in the last months that it's all become a bit to much. So here it goes...
Hey, Mr. Vestas ! If you want to go produce your f*ck*ing windmills in China, why don't you go sell them in f*ck*ng China. That's right, take your f*ck*ng factories, your f*ck*ng shareholders, and your f*ck*ng windmills and f*ck off !
You want our f*ck*ng governments to give you our f*ck*ing tax dollars (and euro's) to buy your product, bu you won't allow our workers to make a cent on producing them ? Fine @ Then you can go f*ck*ing peddle them f*ck*ng elsewhere as well !!!
So there. I'm sorry if I offended anyone but Mr. Vestas. But I'm getting sick of these 'businessmen' stealing our money.
Peter R.
Supposing the owner of an adjoining property was allowed to put up a factory there which spewed waste over my property and I was unable to prevent this or obtain compensation for the mess. Either of these remedies would increase the costs of operation of the factory to avoid me picking up this cost. If no such remedy were available I could reasonably claim that I was subsidising the factory next door.
We're all subsidising the use of carbon fuels because those who extract, sell and burn these don't pick up the cost of cleaning up the mess. We all have to pay the insurance costs of extreme weather and the cost of uninsured losses. The fact of this subsidy, together with chaotic, purposefully manipulated and unstable markets for fossil fuels, makes investment in renewable energy a more risky and less profitable activity than it would be given a level playing field.
When are we going to stop subsidising fossil fuels ? The subsidy given to nuclear power through taxpayer funded research and waste cleanup lifecycle costs make nuclear massively more expensive than renewables.
We can pull ourselves out of the economic doldrums by finding new and more expensive ways to do what we already do (generate power, construct buildings, and transport ourselves and stuff from A to B).
I don't think so. You can only make money from green bollocks by selling it to overseas morons and as this article demonstrates we have very little capability in the green bollocks manufacturing sector.
... but a damn sight more expensive to fix when it breaks down ... which it inevitably does.
Be very cautious of the Wind Turbines taht come with a little Apple logo on them promising to be mini-turbines that weren't even invented by the parent company yet.
Will no one ever learn?
It isn't strong unless you remove the asterisks, but...
"If you want to go produce your f*ck*ing windmills in China, why don't you go sell them in f*ck*ng China."
Given that lots of coal will presumably be shovelled around to produce these windmills, then lots of oil pumped around to transport them back to the wealthier nations, one wonders whether it's feasible to actually have a renewable energy equipment production line which can bootstrap itself using power generated by its own equipment. Converting fossil fuels into hopefully long-lasting renewable energy devices is one thing, but actually having such devices "carbon neutral" from the start would be a lot more interesting.
Why do we allow factories to have smokestacks? Because industrialized countries, in addition to allowing rich men to make money, can manufacture tanks and airplanes. Nuclear power can produce as much energy as we want, while most renewable options take up so much land for the energy they give, a renewable future also means one where we use much less energy, and therefore have to do without heavy industry. This isn't an option in the dangerous world we live in.
1. This is a killer blow to the Isle of Wight economy. Their suppliers are also walking, remember. And there is no commuting anywhere from the island.
2. Vestas on the Isle of Wight made blades for the US MARKET. They even had ppl from US come to the island to train, because they were going to setup a plant in US (which they did, 2 of them). Do I hear embargo on US goods? No? I thought so. So stfu about the china crap.
3. They were a very good employer to work for.
4. The island nimbys killed their show project few years ago. That pissed them right off. But they stuck with the island.
5. They had a 2 week break scheduled for August to upgrade the plant to make blades for the UK market. I guess their patience run out, seeing no progress with planning applications and financing of projects in the UK.
6. They are still going to build their new R&D facility on the island.
7. My wife works/ed for them.
8. The island is ded. We will be leaving as soon as possible.
Instead of "Tit for Tat"...
How about "Tat for Tit"?
How about the British economy makes a point of becoming competitive...
Instead of levying an import tax against the Chinks...
How about removing a good part of the 90% tax that our own government levys against its own people, to spend on idealistic crap like... er...
Inefficient and subsidised wind power projects?
Skull and CB... cos the gubmint ARE the pirates.
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