tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774510750415512728.post6781449759559064486..comments2023-10-30T07:57:02.909-04:00Comments on Proof Positive: Wind Power: What's T. Boone's Stake?Mike aka Proofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08931553845065187278noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774510750415512728.post-46519414363485625052008-07-17T09:24:00.000-04:002008-07-17T09:24:00.000-04:00"BTW, I'd question your "run for 25 years before r..."BTW, I'd question your "run for 25 years before requiring replacement". Yeah, how well do these wind farm turbines stand up to tornado alley, anyway? Having lived through an F4/F5 tornado in Xenia ohio in 1974, I give them one full tornado season max. Furthermore, when someone shows me a wind powered car or hospital, only then will I take this crap seriously.Lady Cincinnatushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02392687400344784843noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774510750415512728.post-32056161584223595672008-07-17T08:01:00.000-04:002008-07-17T08:01:00.000-04:00You're right! WHat I should have said was $2.50 to...You're right! WHat I should have said was $2.50 to deliver the first watt of electricity. After that, what the true cost over the lifetime will be, will be largely dictated by how much the wind blows, how hard the wind blows, how much down time for weather and maintenance and maintenance costs.<BR/><BR/>BTW, I'd question your <I>"run for 25 years before requiring replacement"</I>. That seems like a pretty rosy scenario for anything that has moving parts!Mike aka Proofhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08931553845065187278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774510750415512728.post-16234748196449108082008-07-17T02:48:00.000-04:002008-07-17T02:48:00.000-04:00Your math is mistaken because it isn't incorpo...Your math is mistaken because it isn't incorporating a time factor. A watt is current multiplied by voltage at an instant in time. That's why your electric bill is expressed in kilowatt-hours; you have to include a time factor before you can assess a quantity of power consumed. When you run a load of 1000W for one hour, you get billed $0.10 (or whatever) for the privilege. If you are only using 500W during an hour's time, you get billed $0.05. And so forth. The same thing applies on the generation side.<BR/><BR/>Wind farms are typically designed and built on the (reasonable) assumption that the equipment can run for 25 years before requiring replacement or major service. Assuming the windfarm owner can sell bulk power to the nearest transmission utility at $0.03/kW-h, the maximum amount of revenue that 4000MW of installed capacity can generate in the expected liftime is about $26.3Bn, or more than 2.5x the proposed $10Bn investment.<BR/><BR/>The windfarm would have to be averaging well below half of its peak capacity over that lifetime before the final costs including ongoing operating expenses would endanger the investment, which is unlikely in the Texas to North Dakota corridor -- the area has good wind patterns and is already a hotbed of investment totalling into the billions of dollars for major wind developers including FPLE, Babcock & Brown, Vestas, and a number of smaller players.<BR/><BR/>Pickens may or may not be off his rocker in general, but his business instincts here are working just fine. You CAN run a wind farm quite profitably as long as you pick a site with good wind patterns.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com