The West must spend more money on clean technology to rewire the world’s energy systems, not kick off a destructive trade battle, says David Fickling for Bloomberg Opinion.
SYDNEY: For the past few years, the global wind industry has been stuck in the doldrums. With rising interest rates and materials costs whittling away developers’ profit margins, and political and economic elites cooling on the energy transition, installations of new turbines went sideways. Even as the and solar industries gathered speed, wind ran into turbulence. The sector was left drenched in red ink, project cancellations and failed auctions.
That’s a stunning 50 per cent pace of growth compared to the previous year, and finally puts the world above the previous 95 GW record set in 2020. Right now, the big headache for clean technology is mostly that much of the world is fretting about what’s being deemed as Chinese overcapacity. A breakneck pace of factory-building means that we will soon be equipped with the production lines to manufacture all the solar panels, EVs and lithium-ion batteries we need.
“From Europe to Americas, there has been chronic underinvestment in future supply chain capacity,” GWEC wrote. “Wind industry actors are hesitant to scale up” thanks to doubts about future levels of demand. That uncertainty is being driven by dithering policy support from governments, as well as delays in providing permits, grid connections and land.
Instead, it’s trade-protected wind that’s falling furthest behind where it needs to be. To the extent that there are grounds for hope around the energy transition right now, it’s largely thanks to the availability of cheap, clean Chinese products that US and European governments seem so keen to exclude.
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