Original report by eugyppius
Guys, grab your popcorn because the green energy saga from Schleswig-Holstein has it all: incompetence, useless virtue signals, and an eco-friendly ferry that appears to be a wind sail. Spoiler Alert: It doesn’t end well.
Here’s a tragicomedy: Once upon a time in the lonely German countryside, there was a diesel ferry, the Missunde II. For twenty years, this horse has been able to transport more than 120,000 cars and 50,000 bicycles every year across the Schlei inlet – a body of water that is only 100 meters wide. Not exactly an English channel. But unfortunately, the Missunde II has a fatal flaw in the eyes of the bureaucrats who signal virtue: it is powered by diesel. And we all know that diesel is the villain in the modern environmental morality game.
There is nothing wrong with that Misun IIunless he runs on diesel, which we know is a bad fuel destined to destroy the world; and his diesel engine makes a noise, like a diesel engine. Thus bureaucrats from the State Office for Coastal Protection decided a few years ago to replace the old and reliable Misun II with a new, silent and more environmentally friendly solar-powered ferry, to be named Walking III. His decision was typical. The Coastal Protection Office is subordinate to the Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of the Environment, and the Ministry of the Environment is in the hands of a very bald man named Tobias Goldschmidt, who likes to talk about how to make Schleswig-Holstein carbon neutral – one. ferry on time.
Carbon-neutral Walking III cost 3.3 million Euros, and he was finally delivered after various delays in January 2024. Walking III has a noble roof, to carry high-priced solar panels:
https://www.eugyppius.com/p/how-schleswig-holstein-sold-their
Enter the Green Bureaucrat
The geniuses at the Schleswig-Holstein Coastal Protection Office – a subordinate of the Ministry of the Environment – decided to replace the “dirty” diesel ferry with a solar-powered miracle of modern eco-engineering, the Missunde III. After all, who can resist a shiny new boat with solar panels on the roof, especially when it promises to save the planet, one ferry ride at a time? The cost? Only 3.3 million euros. It doesn’t matter if you spend other people’s money.
Missunde III, according to the planners, will usher in a new era of clean transportation inland. No diesel fumes or engine noise marring the beautiful coastal landscape. Only the gentle hum of solar-powered motors quietly transports cars and bicycles from one side to the other.
Or so they thought.
Reality Strike: Solar Panels Don’t Like Wind
Reality has a funny way of foiling the best laid plans, especially if the plan is designed more for PR than practicality. It turns out that the solar panels on the Missunde III are as useful as the screen doors on a submarine. The ferry’s magnificent sunroof is like a giant sail when facing the wind of Schleswig-Holstein’s famous coast. Instead of gliding easily past the Schlei, Missunde III struggled. Motors cannot handle the drag of the wind, and it takes twice as long to make a crossing compared to its diesel-powered predecessor. Not only that, but the increased weight of the solar ferry puts too much strain on the guidance cable, and it can’t even dock properly. It turns out that if you let ideology drive your project, you’re often in the gutter—or in this case, drifting down the river.
So sun-powered Walking III languished in the harbor while people argued about how much environmental harm they should be allowed to inflict on the inlet to make her steerable. Meanwhile, cars that usually take the ferry across the Schlei have to detour to the nearest bridge 30 kilometers away. Sometimes you have to break some eggs to make an omelette, and sometimes you have to increase your carbon emissions while you wait for someone to build an emission-free ferry.
https://www.eugyppius.com/p/how-schleswig-holstein-sold-their
Environment Stuck in Environment Clock
Now, here’s the part where the absurdity really ramps up. To fix the docking problem of Missunde III, the authorities decided that they had to drive an extra dolphin (an ocean stack structure, not a mammal) to the Schlei bed. But Schlei is a protected nature reserve, which means installing dolphins requires land assessments and permits, and all the bureaucratic rigamarole takes time. So instead of reducing carbon emissions, the environmental brain trust behind Missunde III can increase he, as the car was forced to take a detour of 30 kilometers when the ferry languished in port, out of service.
Return of Outlaw Diesel
After months of costly derailment, exasperated local officials demanded that the faithful Missunde II be brought back into service. But there is a problem: The ferry has been sold for 17,000 euros – a pittance for a ship that has been trusted by the public for decades. And what you don’t know, making Missunde II seaworthy again will require extensive renovations costing 1.8 million euros.
The authorities are quietly selling things that are outdated and shameful Misun II for 17,000 Euros for some gloomy people who failed to grasp that the diesel ferry is not the winter way. The buyer probably regretted the purchase, because he left the poor boat moored in Maasholm, near the head of the Schlei, where he began to rot in the elements. It is necessary that the cruel fate of unadvanced technology and the environment is not friendly to watercraft.
But wait, it gets better. After realizing the dream boat solar-powered that lemon, the same environmental bureaucrat who sold Missunde II in the first place came crawling back to the buyer and bought it back for 100,000 euros-almost six times what they sold. Let’s sink in. In the name of environmentalism, they wasted millions on a solar-powered ferry that didn’t work, then had to spend a fortune to get the old reliable diesel ferry back into service.
Lessons Not Learned
As of September 2024, Missunde III is still not operational. Engineers are trying to outfit it with an additional bow thruster to help deal with the wind, but it’s anyone’s guess if or when it will see regular service. Meanwhile, the old Missunde II is back on the water, ferrying cars and bikes across the Schlei as before this farcical green energy experiment began.
At Misun II has been given a new permit to sail until 2028, because no one believes that the sophisticated super-silent Walking III it will be an easy task to transport the car through 100 meters of water at any time.
And what has Schleswig-Holstein gained for 3.3 million euros (plus another hundred thousand, plus almost 2 million for repairs, to buy back the diesel ferry)? A nice rooftop of solar panels that would be more suitable to shed the Park, a wind-sail masquerading as a ferry, and a reminder that virtue-signaling environmentalism often leads to nothing but wasted money and time.
Moral of the Story
This failure is a perfect example of what happens when ideology trumps common sense. Green energy fanatics in government are so blinded by their obsession with cutting carbon emissions that they can’t see the forest for the trees—or in this case, the ferries for the sails. It’s not about actually solving problems or making things work better; it’s about feeling good about yourself and showing off that “green” Verified to the world, no matter how many millions of euros they flush down the toilet in the process.
It is now September, and Walking III no closer to the car crossing the Schlei than on the march. Among other things, the engineers had decided she should be equipped with an additional bow thruster to cope with the stiff current. So the Office for Coastal Protection finally went limping back to the not-so-dim buyer who bought it Misun II for 17,000 Euros, and struck a deal to buy back from him for 100,000 Euros. At Misun II has been given a new permit to sail until 2028, because no one believes that the sophisticated super-silent Walking III it will be an easy task to transport the car through 100 meters of water at any time.
The Missunde III debacle should be a cautionary tale for anyone who thinks the Green New Deal or Net Zero policies will bring some kind of environmental utopia. More often than not, these projects are little more than expensive virtue-signaling exercises that do more harm than good. If this is the future of green energy, then God help us all.
HT/Fabius Maximus
Related
