Wind Energy Spurned In US, Welcomed In Bosnia and Herzegovina

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So much for “American Energy Dominance.” US President Donald Trump’s war on wind energy is killing off thousands of jobs here at home, while rival superpower China is gleefully taking its wind industry on the road to pick up ripe targets in the eastern parts of Europe, among other areas. The latest example is the Balkan nation Bosnia and Herzegovina, where a new 84-megawatt wind farm began churning out the clean kilowatts earlier this year.

Step 1: Plant A Wind Energy Project In The Balkans

The Balkan Peninsula is a mother lode of renewable energy potential, including hydropower, biomass, geothermal, and solar as well as wind energy, and that includes Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Investors are already on the case. Earlier this year the BiH Independent System Operator ran the numbers and came up with a total of 3.8 gigawatts in new wind farms under development through 2035, along with 12.5 gigawatts of solar.

Into this mix jumps POWERCHINA, the Power Construction Corporation of China. On September 1, China’s state-run news organization CRI drew attention to the company’s 20-turbine, 84-megawatt Ivovik wind energy venture in BiH, which commenced trial operations in January. The new wind farm complements the firm’s new Ulog hydropower project, also located in BiH.

The two projects “represent a significant step for Chinese-built power equipment in Eastern Europe,” CRI noted in a press release, adding that the ventures “also reflect a broader effort to align Chinese and European technical standards in support of global climate goals.”

Step 2: Later, Rinse, Repeat

A generating capacity of 84 megawatts is fairly modest by today’s standards, but the Ivovik project will claim the title of the largest renewable energy project in BiH to date, with an annual output of 259 million kilowatt-hours. “According to project figures, that output could displace roughly 240,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions per year,” CRI stated.

CRI also used the occasion to point out that the new wind farm will have an outsized impact on China’s footprint in the global wind energy industry, in Europe and beyond. “The Ivovik project is notable as the first foreign-concession energy venture in BiH and the country’s first renewable development led by a Chinese firm,” CRI emphasized.

For the record, the Ulog hydropower project is the also first of its kind to be developed by a Chinese firm in BiH. “For POWERCHINA, the developments highlight the company’s growing role in Europe’s clean-energy buildout,” CRI noted. “Company officials describe the Ivovik and Ulog projects as ‘a bridge’ between China and BiH—both in strengthening renewable infrastructure and in signaling broader cooperation on climate and energy transition.”

Meanwhile, Wind Energy Is On The Rocks In The USA

In contrast, news organizations here in the US don’t much in the way to report about broader cooperation on climate action and the energy transition between the US and BiH or, for that matter, between the US and any other country. Instead, they are left trying to make sense of an “American Energy Dominance” policy that throttles down the nation’s two most abundant and accessible energy resources — the sun and the wind — in favor of fossil fuels along with a generous hodgepodge of other renewables including geothermal, hydropower, and biomass, with marine energy also making the cut.

Anyone trying to rationalize this heady brew might as well pack up, go home, and while away the hours picking lint out of their bellybutton. That would be a more productive use of time than attempting to describe why the Commander-in-Chief is waging war against wind energy as well as solar, while other renewables enjoy the protective embrace of American Energy Dominance.

The obvious answer, of course, is that the war on wind energy is a simple matter of personal spite, writ large with all the wealth and power a self-dealing grifter can muster, with solar energy thrown in as collateral damage. Conveniently, wind and solar are the only two domestic energy resources that fail to reach the Trump administration’s antiquated “reliability” bar.

The well-documented roots of Trump’s obsession with wind energy go back to the years leading up to his first successful bid for the White House. In 2012 his new golf course at Aberdeen in Scotland opened for business, and the next year he sued to stop 11 offshore wind turbines from being installed within sight of the new venture. “He was furious when the Scottish government approved plans for the renewable energy development within sight of his multi-million pound golf development on the Menie estate, north of Aberdeen,” noted BBC, among many other news organizations tracking the battle.

“He said the turbines would spoil the view,” BBC added.

Oh the irony, it burns. Golf courses themselves represent view spoilage on a massive scale, reducing the natural ramble of existing landscapes to stiffened swaths of cropped grass, where order is maintained with chemical treatments and greenhouse gas-spewing grounds equipment.

In terms of the spoilage of views, the Menie golf project was particularly egregious because the construction work damaged protected dunes that Trump had promised to preserve. In 2020, Scottish environmental authorities determined that the damage was severe and irreversible, thereby removing the dunes from protection altogether.

Thousands Of US Workers Fall Under Trump Sword

Trump or no Trump, the global wind industry, of course, is not going anywhere. The technology is not going away, either. Wind energy, onshore and off, will continue to feature in the power generation plans of nations around the world. After all, the wind isn’t going to stop blowing.

Meanwhile, offshore wind energy stakeholders here in the US tried to catch Trump’s attention on the heels of Election Day last year, including the trade organization Oceantic Network. On November 6, Oceantic president Liz Burdock emphasized that the industry sprawls far beyond the turbines themselves to embrace a 39-state supply chain that employs thousands of workers in manufacturing, ship-building, and upgrades to seaport infrastructure, among other elements.

Bellybutton, meet lint. Despite the clear potential for killing off thousands of jobs in red and blue state alike, Trump followed through with his vendetta against wind energy upon taking office, the offshore industry being a particularly ripe target because it depends on leases issued by the Interior Department. The offshore lease program was the first to fall under the axe, and the rug has also been been ripped out from under partly-finished wind projects by order of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

Adding insult to injury, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy chipped in his two cents last week, clawing back $679 million in federal funding for 12 different seaport upgrade projects. The upgrades would have benefited other industries in addition to the offshore wind industry.

Clinging to one last shred of hope, later this week 18 Democratic attorneys general will appear in federal court to argue that the Trump administration has no authority to review, let alone stop, offshore wind energy projects that are already in the pipeline. Stay tuned…

Photo: So much for American Energy Dominance: The Chinese firm POWERCHINA is expanding its wind energy footprint into the Balkan Peninsula and other points around the globe (Ivovik wind farm courtesy of POWERCHINA).