Nedpower / Shell Oil buy Spanish Turbines for Mt Storm
Nedpower / Shell Oil contracted with Gamesa to supply the turbines for the Mt Storm Wind Power project.
This led to speculation that the turbines would come from the new factory in Pennsylvania.
Instead Gamesa are supply the turbines direct from Spain - see photos of Spanish turbines on Mt Storm. This is obviously good for Gamesa and their partner Shell Oil (Shell WindEnergy).
However - this is obviously a very bad deal for the American taxpayer - with $280M therefore being spent in Spain rather than West Virginia or Pennsylvania.
One could speculate that the Bush adminstration would be happy with Coalition Partner - Spain - landing a windfall for their previous support in Iraq. However that does little to nothing for employment in West Virginia. They could have purchased generator and supporting electrical parts and also the steel towers in West Virginia - but as is clear from the photographs - all the equipment is being shipped in from Spain - not just the turbines.
It also raises the question about how many turbines Shell Oil now intends to install? Each turbine is being paid for in Euros - and with the US dollar now at 1.35 to the Euro - this represents $100M of cost esculation since the project started. And of course there is the expense of bringing the turbines from Spain as well.
Then in addition - the original PSC approval assumed that $300M was being spent in West Virginia. Now that it is clear that most of the money is going overseas - I'm sure that the PSC decision is going to be seen as a political disaster. Once again West Virginia resources have been sold out to big corporations with little compensation actually occurring in State, but all the impact, fallout and knock-on of course is being picked up in State.
Clearly Nedpower have felt no restrictions in destroying five miles of State roads during the initial construction - as reported here.
This led to speculation that the turbines would come from the new factory in Pennsylvania.
Instead Gamesa are supply the turbines direct from Spain - see photos of Spanish turbines on Mt Storm. This is obviously good for Gamesa and their partner Shell Oil (Shell WindEnergy).
However - this is obviously a very bad deal for the American taxpayer - with $280M therefore being spent in Spain rather than West Virginia or Pennsylvania.
One could speculate that the Bush adminstration would be happy with Coalition Partner - Spain - landing a windfall for their previous support in Iraq. However that does little to nothing for employment in West Virginia. They could have purchased generator and supporting electrical parts and also the steel towers in West Virginia - but as is clear from the photographs - all the equipment is being shipped in from Spain - not just the turbines.
It also raises the question about how many turbines Shell Oil now intends to install? Each turbine is being paid for in Euros - and with the US dollar now at 1.35 to the Euro - this represents $100M of cost esculation since the project started. And of course there is the expense of bringing the turbines from Spain as well.
Then in addition - the original PSC approval assumed that $300M was being spent in West Virginia. Now that it is clear that most of the money is going overseas - I'm sure that the PSC decision is going to be seen as a political disaster. Once again West Virginia resources have been sold out to big corporations with little compensation actually occurring in State, but all the impact, fallout and knock-on of course is being picked up in State.
Clearly Nedpower have felt no restrictions in destroying five miles of State roads during the initial construction - as reported here.
posted by DRRW @ 12:21 PM
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