Siemens closes Turbine plant in Ontario

[The Green Barbarian]

I feel bad for the employees, and for the poor taxpayers of Ontario who are on the hook once again for a giant "Green Energy" boondoggle by the brainless Liberals in that province. Kathleen Wynne, time to go. Of course, the NDP is crying because they want to see even more cash dumped down this horrible black hole. "Green energy" my butt. What a farce.

Siemens closes wind turbine plant in Tillsonburg — 340 green energy jobs gone

The closing raises new questions about the fallout from Ontario’s controversial green-energy policy

TILLSONBURG — Siemens Canada is closing its wind-turbine plant here, slashing more than 340 jobs and shuttering one of the town’s largest employers.

The closing, announced by the company Tuesday, comes after weeks of nervous speculation and one day of public debate over the factory, which was locked to employees Sunday night.

Its 340 employees were called to a meeting with the company Tuesday.

“This was a very difficult decision that was taken only after assessing all the options,” said David Hickey, head of Siemens Gamesa Business in Canada. “We have a great team of employees at the plant who have produced quality work for the last six years, and we sincerely appreciate their efforts.”

The closing raises new questions about the fallout from Ontario’s controversial green-energy policy. Siemens was one of four green-energy plants lured to Ontario under a controversial multibillion-dollar provincial deal with Korean industrial giant Samsung.

Outside the factory Tuesday, one employee talked about the frustration felt by he and his colleagues.

“There was quite a bit of anger in there because they shut the place down the other night and never really told anybody about it,” said Rick, who asked his last name not be published. “It was bang, everything was locked down.”

SNIP!!!

In 2010, four plants to make parts for wind and energy farms were set up under the Samsung deal between the company and the province to generate power for Ontario and create manufacturing jobs in green energy.

The four plants were to create about 900 jobs.

In exchange, Ontario agreed to buy heavily subsidized power from Samsung wind and solar projects and guarantee the company space on the province’s crowded electricity transmission grid.

The Liberal government, sharply criticized over the cost of the agreement, later renegotiated it after the company missed some deadlines, slashing by more than one-third the nearly $10 billion in power it had agreed to buy and reducing to $5 billion from $7 billion Samsung’s investment commitment.

While wind energy has its supporters, fierce opposition in rural communities – especially in Southwestern Ontario, home to the largest number of wind turbines in Ontario and the largest wind farms – remains and helped defeat two prominent Liberal cabinet ministers in the region in the 2011 election.

http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/sie ... c2478fbc9e

[Queen K]

Okay, but it's wind turbines, or "bird and bat choppers" as you've called them, you should be celebrating, no?

[Dizzy1]

It's all good ... Tesla will save us

[GordonH]

It's all good ... Tesla will save us

[Rwede]

It's all good ... Tesla will save us

I priced out a Tesla.

$205,000 by the time I added the creature comforts.

I'd like to buy one, not because of the whole green energy bit, but because of the zero to 100 in less than 3 seconds aspect.

Considering Musk's craziness though, looks like it's back to post-three seconds with a Z06 at only about half the cost.

[The Green Barbarian]

Okay, but it's wind turbines, or "bird and bat choppers" as you've called them, you should be celebrating, no?

yes. But I hope those people can find other jobs. One way to look at it I guess is that they shouldn't have gotten these jobs in the first place as wind turbines are a monumentally stupid idea.

[Queen K]

If industries shut down because what they produce can be labelled "monumentally stupid" - well, there goes half of the "food" products, most of the comestic industry, some children's toys, all sorts of junk in the dollar stores, most of fashion industry, and I'm sure you can think of a few yourself.

The technology works, but it also breaks down, needs expensive repairs, chops bats and birds, and needs to be subsidized. By someone and it wasn't going to be subsidized by private funds.

As for those working there, I thinking most of them are highly skilled in some industrial/technological way and the shock of what has happened to them will be replaced by job offers shortly. I'm thinking the technology needed more education and skills to produce than say, most items. Only guessing.

So when are you celebrating the demise of wind turbines?

Or, like a lot of manufacturing the technology will be reproduced off-shore. So don't celebrate yet.

[maryjane48]

lots of non facts on this page. first you can buy a tesla for under 100 000, second in the story linked it said samsung missed deadlines . we should be using canadian companies instead of realying on a phone maker. bad deal because we used a bad company .


having said that the govt should offer retraining for ones make sense and others given a big severance package

[Queen K]

Rwede wanted his Tesla with "creature comforts" and for all we know that means that grizzly bear fur covered seats and steering wheel cover were options.

[The Green Barbarian]

If industries shut down because what they produce can be labelled "monumentally stupid" - well, there goes half of the "food" products, most of the comestic industry, some children's toys, all sorts of junk in the dollar stores, most of fashion industry, and I'm sure you can think of a few yourself.
.

What a meant by monumentally stupid is that the power these bird-blenders generates is far too expensive to be feasible or sustainable. I don't care about food products or the cosmetic industry as they aren't standing there looking for giant government hand-outs. Wind power is monumentally stupid because it benefits no one.

[The Green Barbarian]

lots of non facts on this page. :

Like what? Siemens isn't closing their plant? Are you sure about that?

[Omnitheo]

Bird blenders lol. Yeah some designs and placement of turbines had been detrimental to wildlife. Thankfully new innovations and better study into flight paths has helped reduce those numbers significantly. That said, at the height of unfortunate wildlife deaths, windfarms were still barely anywhere on the scale next to cats and glass windows.

[Queen K]

If industries shut down because what they produce can be labelled "monumentally stupid" - well, there goes half of the "food" products, most of the comestic industry, some children's toys, all sorts of junk in the dollar stores, most of fashion industry, and I'm sure you can think of a few yourself.
.

What a meant by monumentally stupid is that the power these bird-blenders generates is far too expensive to be feasible or sustainable. I don't care about food products or the cosmetic industry as they aren't standing there looking for giant government hand-outs. Wind power is monumentally stupid because it benefits no one.

Oh that. Okay, if the technology doesn't work, and it's far too unfeasible, who is going to Southern Alberta to take down all the turbines? And Washington State? Road trip?

[hobbyguy]

Wind power works where better options are not available. Wind power WITH storage is, however, quite expensive. Better than solar dreaming, but still, wind power is very ineffective at supplying peak power - which is the issue most grids face.

Nuclear presents better options, but the ideologues won't have it, even though Gen III reactors are perfectly safe.

[maryjane48]

well i guess since they a4e so safe just think the money you could make having one in your backyard .