Much of this growth in wind energy has been spurred by the wind energy tax credits -- credits that President Obama wants to continue. But Willard Mitt Romney has a different view. He wants to eliminate the wind energy tax credits -- which could devastate the fledgling wind energy industry. Instead, he wants to continue the billions of dollars in government subsidies for the oil industry (which is recording record profits, and no longer needs those subsidies).
This week, President Obama spoke about this issue in Iowa. While he was speaking to Iowans, those of us in Texas (and other wind energy states) should pay attention, because he is talking about our future -- a vision of the future not shared by Romney. Here is what the president had to say:
“Over the past four years, we’ve doubled the amount of electricity America can generate from wind—from 25 gigawatts to 50 gigawatts. And to put that in perspective, that’s like building 12 new Hoover Dams that are powering homes all across the country. We doubled the amount of electricity we generate from solar energy, too. And combined, these energy sources are enough power to make sure that 13 million homes have reliable power and support the paychecks that help more than 100,000 Americans provide for their families.
“That’s not imaginary. That is real. And that’s what’s at stake in November. Thirty-seven thousand American jobs are on the line if the wind energy tax credit is allowed to expire like my opponent thinks they should. And unlike Gov. Romney, I want to stop giving $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies to big oil companies that have rarely been more profitable so that we can keep investing in homegrown energy sources like wind that have never been more promising. That’s part of the choice in this election.”
He says it all so much better than I can so here we go:
ReplyDelete"A 2MW turbine costs $3.5 million dollars according to wind turbine sources, windustry.org/how-much-do-wind-turbines-cost seen on the right. The lifespan of turbines is estimated to be about 20 years. If you financed the entire $3.5 million at 7% it would be require a payment of $330,000 per year. This does not include the cost of maintenance, transmission line or back-up conventional power plants to balance the fluctuating output.
If we construct the 2MW turbines in a favorable position it will produce an output of 30% of 2MW or .6MW over the entire year. There are 8760hr in the year yielding a production of 5300 MWhours. Multiply by 1,000 to convert to kWh's and the yield is 5,300,00 kWhs.
Each kWh is worth about 5 cents wholesale for a total production of $262,000 per year, yet the owner will have a payment of $330,000 per year to cover capital costs. I give a rough estimate of at least another $70,000 per year to cover maintenance, landowner leases, local government kickbacks, transmission lines and extra costs of conventional power plants backup and "following". I know workers from a wind farm in my locale and there is approximately 1 full time worker for every 4 turbines. Even using the gross UNDERESTIMATION of $70,000 per year of ongoing costs the investors would need $400,000 per year to yield only $262,000 in electricity payments."
http://www.nofreewind.com/2009/07/wind-turbines-do-not-create-energy.html
I should add that the main surge for power is inthe mornings and the evenings, precisely the times when winds tend to drop!