The German company Enerparc AG is one of Europe’s very largest operators and owners of solar power plants. The company is headquartered in Hamburg and operates more than 500 solar parks across the EU, with an installed capacity of around 5.5 GW – of which 3.8 GW is connected to the electricity grid. The company has now filed for insolvency in Germany.
According to Affärsvärlden, debts and other financial obligations amount to a hefty EUR 3 billion (approx. NOK 32 billion), most of which consists of project financing. Insolvency administrator Stefan Denkhaus is now calling for calm and intends to continue operations for the time being while attempts are made to stabilise the business and explore possibilities for buyers or investors. Around 380 employees are affected by the insolvency.
The reason given for the insolvency is that the development of non-renewable solar parks and wind turbines has proceeded faster than the expansion of the electricity grids and digital control systems: Solar power plants cannot be regulated, and when they all produce electricity at the same time, overproduction and bottlenecks arise in the electricity grid, and prices and revenues fall. When there is no sun or wind, a power shortage arises and prices rise, but then the ‘green’ power plants do not make money either.
The development of wind and solar power enjoys special advantages of which other industries can only dream, but profits require very high and stable electricity prices. Germany has reached a level where weather-dependent energy accounts for approximately 58 per cent of German electricity consumption – but what looks like a success is actually a catastrophe, because electricity cannot be produced without someone using it. The more ‘renewable’ energy, the greater the problems, costs and electricity prices.
A green-political fantasy creation
The aim of Merkel’s Energiewende has been to create a fantasy-based ‘smart grid’ for the future, in which everything is to be electrified, all electricity is to come from wind and solar, green electricity is to be pushed back and forth with free flow across the whole of Europe, and production peaks are to be stored in hydrogen and batteries. This energy supply is a political fantasy creation from the smoke-filled dream world of the hippie era, and is based on lies with statistics, science-fiction technology, Mickey Mouse economics and creative accounting. The ‘green transition’ based on wind and solar has never had any prospect of succeeding.
Politicians have been adept at subsidising wind-power and solar-panel sellers because it looks progressive – and the profiteers have not been slow to appear. But politicians have neglected the power grid, storage capacity, backup power stations and market functions alike, while the costs of balancing the grid have exploded. Periods of overproduction and price collapse have therefore become increasingly common, and it will get worse:
Since wind turbines and solar panels produce electricity only intermittently, and then during periods of overproduction and low electricity prices, profitability becomes virtually impossible – and analysts have warned about and documented this for nearly 30 years. Nor is the giant Enerparc AG the only company to have been hit by reality: The German developer SoWiTec has also filed for insolvency after its debt level became too high.
Green bankruptcies are in fact becoming increasingly common as more and more green projects are realised. The truth is that these inefficient power plants will never have any possibility of making money over time unless electricity prices are fixed and extremely high, and no modern society will be able to survive that.
Nevertheless, the attempt to create an ‘energy transition’ will continue – because figures, science, data, facts and empirical evidence have no place in climate policy.
