Old Rocks
Diamond Member
Here are some figures from the wind industry. Like the nuclear site, they also point out the past failures.
http://www.awea.org/faq/cost.html
Using typical gas project financing terms instead, the cost also drops even if the developer owns the project, to 3.69 cents/kWh. Costs in all cases assumed use of the federal production tax credit.
Wiser and Kahn set out to examine the proposition, long advanced by members of the wind industry, that wind projects would be cheaper if they could take advantage of the lower-cost financing available to large electric utilities. In general, they said, that appears to be true, although they caution that utility investment analysis methods may not be completely accurate and may overstate the savings that could be attained.
Their comparison is based on a 50-MW wind farm with an installed cost of $1,000/kW, a 30% capacity factor, and operations and maintenance (O&M) expenses of 0.65 cents/kWh.
http://www.awea.org/faq/cost.html
Using typical gas project financing terms instead, the cost also drops even if the developer owns the project, to 3.69 cents/kWh. Costs in all cases assumed use of the federal production tax credit.
Wiser and Kahn set out to examine the proposition, long advanced by members of the wind industry, that wind projects would be cheaper if they could take advantage of the lower-cost financing available to large electric utilities. In general, they said, that appears to be true, although they caution that utility investment analysis methods may not be completely accurate and may overstate the savings that could be attained.
Their comparison is based on a 50-MW wind farm with an installed cost of $1,000/kW, a 30% capacity factor, and operations and maintenance (O&M) expenses of 0.65 cents/kWh.