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Last week I started a discussion of the wind turbines. With information from the Plastics Recycling newsletter and also Google, I briefly covered how many there were world-wide (341,000) and how much electricity they provided in the U.S. (enough for 27 million homes). I also noted there was about 105,500 jobs involved with them in our country. And mentioned they were larger than many imagined them to be.
Today I’ll go into how much each cost, how long it takes for them to pay for themselves, and whether they are worth it. Later I’ll go into what their life-expectancy is and why they create a recycling problem.
On the cost of each, they are not cheap. The cost of them is roughly $1.3 to $2.2 million per megawatt (MW or 1,000,000 watts). Thus, the average 2 MW and 3 MW wind turbines each cost between $3 and $4 million installed. At this cost, one might wonder how long does it take for them to pay for themselves.
My initial guess was probably 10 to 20 years. Boy was I wrong. A study showed the cost of them, materials, manufacturing, construction, use and decommissioning, was paid for in less than 146 days. That’s less than half a year.
Good news, but what about the energy used to make them? Another study showed a wind turbine, over the course of its operational life, generated 20 times more energy than it took to produce.
And today, because they are being produced and installed on an increasingly larger scale, the price of wind power, on a per unit basis has been brought down to where, for an equal amount of electricity produced, they are less expensive than building a new fossil-fuel power plant.
While that’s also good news, now another question comes up: How does the cost of the electricity produced compare to the cost of electricity made by fossil-fuel plants? I know they are better for the environment and in saving natural resources for other needs, but do they save money too?
According to my Google inquiry, wind energy is the cheapest form of new electricity generation available today. This is because modern wind power plants are able to generate electricity for less than 5 cents per kilowatt-hour (kwh). This is a price very competitive with new coal- or gas-fired power plants.
I mentioned that they are good for the environment, but what about all the birds we hear about that are being killed when they fly into them? Unfortunately, our wind turbines kill between 214,000 and 368,000 birds every year.
But as bad as that may sound, a study showed it is only a small fraction compared with the estimated 6.8 million fatalities from collisions with cell and radio towers and the 1.4 billion to 3.7 billion deaths from cats. However, I don’t think we should outlaw cats.
And on that note, I will end for today except to add when you see the wind turbines not turning, it is because there is insufficient wind — they will turn with even a very small wind —or they are out for maintenance.
Next week I will continue talking about wind turbines and how they create a recycling problem.
So till next week, have a great one...
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Ollie is a local citizen concerned with the environment and helping others. A retired Air Force fighter and instructor pilot, he is a graduate of Leadership San Marcos and received his degrees at Texas State University where he worked on staff before totally retiring. For questions or comments, he invites you to call him at 512-353-7432.
