It was announced on November 1, 2023, that two large New Jersey offshore wind turbine projects would be canceled, writing off $4 billion, due largely to financial challenges mirroring those facing the new industry. That news followed developers in New England canceling power contracts for three projects that would have provided wind power to Massachusetts and Connecticut. They said their projects were no longer financially feasible. There are concerns reported that New York offshore wind projects may be scrapped in a dispute with government officials about high costs. Are such projects unworkable without massive financial subsidies, as critics charge?

There are some areas of the world where high winds and other environmental conditions support the choice of wind power as an adjunct to supplement other sources of electricity, but there are many areas that are more borderline and, under current state-of-the-art technology development as well as the high cost of interest on loans, most such projects will be a marginal to losing proposition, and other expenses for maintenance and upkeep will make them unprofitable. So with those exceptions excluded, most such projects are a kind of government boondoggle being promoted without real thought or careful study of the likely economics in recovering return on investment. The government is used to throwing money away but not the private sector, so it will likely be businesses wanting to partner with the government who will have the inclination to scrutinize the projections more carefully, so there will be more projects dissolved at an early stage to mitigate losses once forecasting is done and the numbers show they are financially unsound. The major problem still remains the modest amount of electricity obtainable from most such technologies does not justify the huge expense to establish the basic infrastructure, and it can only be done through government subsidy in the first place. At a time when the U.S. government is functionally bankrupt, it will not be possible to obtain enough energy for what the government wants to see happen, the replacement totally of fossil fuels, so this is a government folly from first to last.