Quote:
Originally Posted by Tron_fdc
Wind power is FAR from cheap, and can be a huge gamble to implement. The last time we ran a cost analysis on a wind farm, it was $2 million US per 1 megawatt turbine, and in order to pay it off within 7 years it needed a min $0.075/kWh pool price and min 35% up time.
The only place a wind turbine makes sense is in a de-regulated market with high commodity prices, an area with consistent winds, or in a heavily government subsidized market.....which would explain why wind accounts for 510MW of a total 11,477MW generation (4.5%) in Alberta. If it had a better payout you would see massive wind development going on....not gas.
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Check out this link:
http://www.retscreen.net/
Basically this is state-of-the-art technology that does Canada proud internationally. You can determine if a wind-farm will be profitable anywhere in the world. Including the profit within the first year, how long it would take to pay off the initial investment, how high the winds are etc. It really is quite amazing.
What you are quoting inevitably is one particular place, and would make no sense to apply that everywhere. Plus, how can something like this not make sense unless it is deregulated or heavily government subsidized? So basically it makes sense, everywhere?