A letter from a citizen in today’s Wichita Eagle makes the case that electricity generated from coal is less expensive than electricity from wind. I don’t know if the writer’s numbers are correct. Considering all costs, though, it is true that wind power is very expensive.
Here’s something from the American Wind Energy Association: “Over the last 20 years, the cost of electricity from utility-scale wind systems has dropped by more than 80%. In the early 1980s, when the first utility-scale turbines were installed, wind-generated electricity cost as much as 30 cents per kilowatt-hour. Now, state-of-the-art wind power plants can generate electricity for less than 5 cents/kWh with the Production Tax Credit in many parts of the U.S., a price that is competitive with new coal- or gas-fired power plants.”
Note that it takes a taxpayer-provided subsidy to make wind power competitive in cost with coal. This is at odds with claims made by some that once the wind plant is built, there’s little cost.
PDF Related posts:
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- Fifteen bad things with wind power — and three reasons why
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- Kansas wind energy boon deserves examination
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- Earl Watkins, Sunflower Chief Executive, speaks at AFP event
- A Cautionary Note for Kansas Wind Power
- Wind power: look at costs of “boom”
- A reasoned look at wind power
- Wind power again reaps subsidy
