Cost of Wind Energy: An OVERVIEW
Wind Energy Home System: How Much Does it Cost? Read on to Find the ANSWER.
The cost of wind energy can be calculated from a number of factors. It is interesting to note immediately that wind energy benefits from an enormous advantage of being a free and renewable energy. It is generated from our number of factors and largely from the uneven heating of the surface of the earth by the sun. The wind-flows between warmer and cooler areas are what generate the airstreams, which are then used in the generation of electricity by wind turbines.
Wind energy financials: what a wind power plant costs
In the nineteen eighties the wind energy generators that were installed typically showed a cost of 30 cents per kilowatt-hour period. This in itself was not a very attractive price compared to the conventional power generators that existed already. However over the last twenty years fossil fuel prices have gone up, and wind generation prices have come down. Today we see a reduction of almost 80 percent in the cost per kilowatt-hour thanks to these factors and the latest high technology wind turbine generators. 5 cents per kilowatt-hour is a common phenomenon now. This is clearly an extremely advantageous rate at which to pay for one’s electricity.
Wind energy also brings other advantages economically which means that it is certainly here to stay for the long run. There is no dependency on fossil fuels, which means freedom from the crises and the enormous expenses that the country has seen in the sense. Wind can be a consistent and also completely free source of energy if the wind turbines are installed correctly. With the growing opposition to the environmental impacts of conventional fossil fuel power plants, and the extremely attractive cost per unit of electricity from wind turbines, farmers and ranchers are now more and more using wind energy generation to supply their own needs for electricity and to sell back electricity to other people.
To make sure that the wind energy generation can be done in a profitable and effective manner, it is necessary to select a site with certain minimum criteria. Wind speed, for example, which is directly correlated to the amounts of electricity that can be generated, must be at least 5m per second in this case.
Dropping the cost of wind energy further
A wind energy developer applying utility financing to wind energy power plants can already generate wind power for as low as 5 cents per kilowatt-hour from a standard 50 MW wind power plant. However this price for kilowatt-hour can drop to as little as 3,5 cents, which is a 30 percent reduction. Wind power generation in this sense is even more attractive compared to say gas power plants and it is clear that wind power generation costs will continue to decrease in the coming years.
Helping the environment can be very cheap!
The environmental question of course is a very important one concerning wind energy and any other renewable energy source. Wind energy is clean. This is in comparison to say coal emissions from coal fired energy plants, which release very small dust particles into the atmosphere. These dust particles can have a serious sometimes fatal effect on human beings because of the cardiovascular and respiratory diseases that can be provoked. They may also result in a higher infant mortality rates for the same reason. Coal plants of course are also responsible for the production of greenhouse gases and the phenomenon such as acid rain. Use of coal power plants can be clearly linked to both a worsening visibility in the earth’s atmosphere and global warming.
Wind power now needs to be set-up with the long-term power generation contracts to solidify and consolidates market acceptance of this new and renewable energy source. The advantages that should allow this to happen include the minimum cost of life cycle for wind energy plants, because they have minimum operating expenses and no fuel purchase is necessary. Wind energy can be used and reused, but will never contribute to any of the pollution that is generated by the conventional fossil fuel power plants.
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