The Green Boom
A great green investment boom is under way, but supply-side problems are underappreciated
A decade ago this would have seemed pure fantasy. Today companies are rushing to meet the demand. A battalion of European energy companies led by Equinor, Orsted and Royal Dutch Shell are competing to build in American waters. Equinor is backing a new wind-tower factory in Albany. Dominion Energy, a utility, is teaming up with a Texan shipbuilder to construct a vessel that can install turbines along America’s east coast.
However, the fact that wind farms, solar farms and battery-powered vehicles are now cost-competitive does not mean they can be built at whatever pace politicians choose. They require raw materials—sometimes, as with the Haliade-X turbines, in prodigious amounts—siting permits, infrastructure for transmission, recharging and the like.
Source: https://www.economist.com/briefing/2021/06/12/the-bottlenecks-which-could-constrain-emission-cuts