Vattenfall spent years planning 140 turbines off England's east coast. Now it stopped the project. Surging costs of turbines, labour and financing rendered it unviable given the low price locked in for its electricity. The cost of building offshore wind farms has climbed 40% this year and they are vulnerable to rising interest rates due to high upfront investments.

Major European electricity interconnections are behind schedule because of “cable market congestion”. Raw materials such as copper are in short supply and 3 manufacturers, Italian Prysmian, Danish NKT and French Nexans control 75% of the market. Analysts doubt production capacity will align with the pace at which new projects need to be built.

Wind farm projects are getting cancelled, major developers are pulling out, and investors are questioning whether it will ever turn a profit. Equipment costs have risen and central banks have put up interest rates. A study last month estimated that a 3.2 percentage point increase in the cost of capital would raise the price of German offshore wind by 26%.

The UK announced £157 million in grants to support nuclear power generated by small modular reactors, so the UK can hit its target of providing up to a quarter of its electricity from domestic nuclear energy by 2050. The government remains committed to “mega projects” like EDF's Sizewell C, for which it provided a £700 million investment.

While many investors snapped up money market products to take advantage of rising rates, BlackRock’s president Rob Kapito expects much of these $7 trillions are poised to shift into bonds. “There are trillions... that are ready, when people feel rates have peaked, to flood the market and we need to position ourselves to capture that,” said Kapito.

High inflation and rising interest rates are driving up the cost of miniature atomic reactors. More than 80 unique small modular reactor, or SMR, designs are under development, resulting in sprawling supply chains and caps on scaling up production. The anticipated average generation cost surged from $55 a MWh in 2016 to almost $120 a MWh.

A review of issues at subsidiary Siemens Gamesa found a "substantial increase in failure rates of wind turbine components". Siemens Energy warned that costly problems could last for years and estimated that component failures may be occurring in 15% to 30% of its installed fleet of turbines. The additional costs may exceed €1 billion.

Germany will allow electricity grid operators to restrict power supply to heat pumps and electric vehicle (EV) chargers during bottlenecks. The grids are often not fit to supply such power-hungry devices, a reason why some operators have refused to connect them in the past. In turn, the state will now require grid operators to provide such connections.

The UK wants to build 50 GW of offshore wind by 2030 but needs a stable backup for periods when it is not windy. Now, Britain’s grid operator is incentivizing short-duration batteries of about 2-hours. The risk is that the capacity will have to be built twice, replacing shorter duration projects, which will mean even longer queues for grid connections.

Around the world, developers of renewable energy projects are told to wait up to 15 years before they can plug projects into grids that are struggling with shifts in electricity generation. 80 mln km of new grid is needed by 2050, more than the entire global grid today. In the UK, Spain and Italy more than 150GW of projects per country are stuck.

APG, one of the world’s largest asset managers, said its pension fund clients were shying away from China due to geopolitical risks. The comments come as other large pension funds pull back from China. European markets have gained more allure for investors. APG is no longer pulling money out of Europe and exploring new asset classes.

US company Helion Energy will provide Microsoft with electricity in about 5 years. Government labs and more than 30 companies are racing to generate power from fusion, which generates power without producing radioactive waste. While many companies aim to use hydrogen isotope tritium to fuel reactions, Helion plans to use a rare gas Helium 3.