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.