All too often, all the hooraw around "green energy" is annoying at best, costly, intrusive, and rage-inducing at worst. But occasionally, just occasionally, there's a little fun in it. The green energy follies can be entertaining, after all, when you get to see the knots the advocates of things like wind and solar power get tangled up in. That's because most of these people aren't any better at coming up with ideas for reliable, affordable energy than Gavin Newsom is at building high-speed trains.
This happens, of course, because like most left-leaning activists and ideologues, the acts of the green energy nuts, at least the ones who can influence policy, are based not on objective facts, but on wishful thinking, and a woeful lack of common sense.
Case in point: In the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, there are two towns, Missunde and Brodersby, on either side of the Schlei, an inlet of the Baltic Sea. They are connected by a ferry across the Schlei, and until recently, the ferry that took people and vehicles across was the Missunde II, an aging but reliable diesel-powered watercraft. Here's where this gets funny: The State Office for Coastal Protection, no doubt worried about the carbon emissions of the old ferry, sold it for a paltry 17,000 euros (a little less than $20,000), and, for the hefty price of 3.3 million Euro (a little over $3,800,000) for a new solar-powered ferry.
It didn't work. The Daily Sceptic's columnist Eugyppius, in a piece printed on Saturday, has the details.
Long-time readers may remember a piece I wrote two years ago on how Schleswig-Holstein sold their reliable diesel ferry for a song, spent €3.3 million for a new emissions-free solar ferry that doesn’t work and increased carbon emissions on top of it all.
Basically, the State Office for Coastal Protection in Schleswig-Holstein embarked upon a project some years ago to replace the Missunde II, an old diesel automobile ferry that connects the towns of Missunde and Brodersby with the hypermodern superclever very progressive Missunde III, which runs entirely on solar power and also looks like a poorly assembled Ikea coffee table:
Here's the Missunde III:
— Ward Clark (@TheGreatLander) August 15, 2026
The original Missunde II looks a lot more like a reasonable watercraft.
— Ward Clark (@TheGreatLander) August 15, 2026
Here's where the fun begins.
Our climatists promptly sold the old Missunde II for €17,000, but then they realised that the Missunde III didn’t really work. Its large overhead solar panels acted like a sail in stiff winds, she had trouble handling the currents of the Schlei and she was too heavy for her guidance cables and thus had trouble mooring at the dock. While authorities tinkered with their retard prestige project, all commuters between Missunde and Brodersby had to take 30km detours across the nearest bridge and so this brave effort to further the green economy of Schleswig-Holstein ended up actually increasing carbon emissions.
With no solution in sight and the locals up in arms, the Office for Coastal Protection before long went limping back to the buyer of the decommissioned Missunde II, who agreed to sell the old ferry he had bought for €17,000 back to them for €100,000.
It's enough to warm one's heart, not to mention the climate.
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Notice the problems the new ferry wasn't able to surmount. Like land-based electric vehicles, it was too heavy. But a Prius won't go belly-up and sink if the load is too heavy, nor will it snap any guidance cables and drift away with the tide. But the real howler is that the new ferry's solar panels had a considerable sail area, making the ship harder to keep on course, not to mention harder to dock.
Did nobody stop to think that it gets windy in northern Germany? Because it does, obviously.
So now the Schleswig-Holstein Office for Coastal Protection has gone back to the new owner of the diesel-powered Missunde II, who is happy enough with his purchase to demand not the original purchase price he paid—17,000 euros—but 100,000 Euro ($116,000, more or less).
That was the state of play in September 2024. Since then, Schleswig-Holstein has sunk more money into repairing the old Missunde II and into retrofitting the Missunde III – all for nothing. Since last weekend, Missunde III has actually been in service, but she still can’t reliably moor and, a full €6.5 million later, authorities have finally given up. The Missunde III will be retired as soon as the old diesel-powered Missunde II can be made inlet-worthy again.
The whole debacle cost the Office for Coastal Protection about 6.5 million euros. That's over $7.5 million in freedom currency. So far. That's just to go all the way around the circle and end up where they started, with the honest old Missunde II, with its diesel power, reliably and safely ferrying people and autos across the Schlei, and the Missunde III refitted but still unreliable.
Now, before we get too carried away pointing and laughing, remember: The American left would love to try the same thing here. Remember that today, remember that tomorrow, and most of all, remember it in November.
