Does Wind Power Pay?

Many figures and statistics that I have come across, suggest that harnessing the power of wind is not cheap. From wind industry.org, I found that the average cost of a commercial-scale wind turbine can range from 1.2 to 2.6 million per MW installed. The average commercial wind turbine is 2MW in size, which means that the cost of installing one of these energy producers is around 3.5 million (and these numbers describe on shore wind farms, off-shore would be much more expensive). So my question is, once a turbine is up in running, how long will it take until it actually pays for itself?

After a little research I came across an article out of TG Daily-Trendwatch about a proposed 659 million dollar on shore wind farm to be constructed by China Datang Corporation, which is China's second biggest electricity provider. Through some simple calculations, the writers of the article were able to calculate approximately how long it would take before the wind farm would essentailly pay for itself. Their calculations were as follows:

"$659,000,000 to generate 400,000,000 watts of power, or 400,000 kW. That's a constant income of $40,000 at $0.10 per kWh. Divide $659 million by $40K and it's 16,475 hours. Divide that by 24 and it's 686 days. Divide that by 365.25 and it's 1.9 years."
- TG Daily-Trendwatch

These calculations were based under the assumption that the farm would be continuously running at 400MW level. However, even if the wind farm were running at 2/3 power, it would still take around three years (TG Daily, 2008). So it's pretty incredible just how quickly the wind industry can turn a profit.

However, to those of you who are now strongly considering turning your back yard into a wind farm, you might want to reconsider. The cost of a small scale residential turbine can range anywhere from $35,000 - 50,000 for a 10 kilowatt turbine. So now, I try to find my calculator and do my own calculations based upon the same methods used in the above mentioned article:

For a turbine costing $50,000:

10kW x $.10 per kWh = $1.00
$50,000 / $1.00 = 50,000 hours
50,000 hours / 24 hours per day = 2084 days
2084 days / 365 = 5.7 years

This figure is again dependant upon the turbine operating at peak performance and the cost of maintenance and overall upkeep are not included. I have a feeling that it would most likely take much longer than 5.7 years to turn a profit on a residential wind turbine. It still does not mean though that harnessing the energy potential of this renewable resource is not a good, eco-friendly idea.

In the News

Looks like our southern neighbors are also looking to harness the power of a stiff breeze...

Mexico

- There seems to be a lot opposition towards this project, which is rightfully so considering that this project would most likely be constructed, maintained, and regulated by companies outside of Mexico, thus bringing few employment opportunities and little ownership to the Mexican population... But the potential for this enormous wind farm is interesting nonetheless

The Wind Industry Around the World

After reading "Wind-Power Politics" by Mark Svenvold which describe's the efforts of Bluewater Wind to develop a wind farm off the coast of Deleware, I became interested in the wind industry around the world and how much of an impact it has made in the energy market. To my amazement, wind farms across the globe are responsible for generating 94,000 megawatts of energy. The popularity and effectiveness of this particular form of energy is growing at a considerable rate (over 45% increase in the U.S. in just the past two years). So why haven't we heard more about this new frontier and where exctly does the U.S. fit among the world nations as far as the capacity to generate wind power?
Currently in the United States, 34 states use wind turbines to generate nearly 17 Gigawatts of power with the states of Texas, California, Minnesota, and Iowa leading the way. However, in the bigger picture, wind energy in the United States is responsible for only 0.4% of the total energy produced; seeminlgy insignificant when you consider the influence created by the energy giants such as coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear energy. This is likely to change however, as the the U.S. Depatment of energy is working towards a goal that invovles harnassing 20% of the total energy demand from wind power by the year 2030.
While the wind industry in the United States is growing at a considerably high rate, it is shadowed by Germany, although the U.S. is likely to surpass the European nation by the end of this decade. Other notable countries that are harnassing this renewable resource are Spain, India, and the People's Republic of China.
So even though oil, natural gas, and coal continue to blaze the trail in the production of electricity on our planet, the future for harnassing renewabe resources such as wind and water looks very promising.

- Information from this entry was obtained from industry.org