Spain Selling Off Wind Farms

Remember when President Obama was touting Spain’s “green energy” policies as something worth emulating here in the United States?

Well Spain, where unemployment has hit rates as high as 20%, is now selling off their wind farms (via Million Dollar Way):

In its concerted effort to reduce debt and maintain investment grade credit rating, Iberdrola SA, the biggest utility firm in Spain, has decided to divest its French wind parks to a consortium of companies led by General Electric Company for about $529 million. The divested portfolio includes 32 wind parks with total installed capacity of 321.4 megawatts that are directly or indirectly controlled by Iberdrola Renovables France, the French subsidiary of the Spanish utility company.

The strategic move is aimed at reducing its huge debt burden, which has been consistently on the rise as the Spanish government failed to pay the bills for selling power at regulated prices due to the continued sovereign debt crisis. To add to its woes, Iberdrola presently has a dismal credit rating by S&P at just a notch above the ‘junk’ rating. With the asset sale likely to bring in additional liquidity, the company hopes to remain afloat at least for the time being, although some experts anticipate an imminent dividend cut.

I’ve got nothing against wind power per se. It’s only problem is that it doesn’t work. It’s expensive and unreliable, and only exists in the marketplace because of government subsidies.

Things that work don’t need to be subsidized.