The Energy Collective: More Realistic Costs for Wind Energy

Report - The Energy Collective:  More Realistic Costs for Wind Energy

Conclusions

According to the American Tradition Institute, there are numerous hidden costs to wind power, including the cost of back-up power, the cost of extra transmission, and the cost of favorable tax benefits. And, the assumption of a 30-year life used in government calculations for wind power is optimistic, based on reports from European countries regarding the useful service lives of their wind turbines.

Including these hidden costs in calculating the cost of wind energy increases its cost by a factor of 1.5 or 2, depending on the power system that is used as back-up. The Institute calculates that ratepayers are paying an extra $8.5 to $10 billion a year for wind energy compared to natural gas-fired generation, and this will only increase as more capacity is added. Add to this the more than $12 billion that the American taxpayer is paying for the ‘one-year’ extension for the PTC, and one can see that the wind industry is a boondoggle at the expense of taxpayers and ratepayers, that is making the US economy less competitive.

Read the entire report at:

http://theenergycollective.com/willem-post/310631/more-realistic-cost-wind-energy