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| I figured at the outside a 1.5 MW turbine (the most common size in Iowa) would run 6 hours a day, maybe 300 days a year and while running would average 1/3 its nameplate capacity (12 mph wind or so). 900,000 KWH per year. At fifteen cents a KWH (that might cover amortization land lease and maintenance), so a cash income of $135,000 per turbine. A coal plant usually figures on costing 6 to 8 cents a KWH and a hydro like on the Columbia or Missouri retails power for 4 or 5 cents a KWH. So their (highly subsidized construction costs based on flood control) costs have to be just a couple cents a KWH.
If you figured 365 days, 24/7 at full nameplate capacity which is unrealistic, that 1.5 MW turbine would produce 13,140,000 KWH with a value at 15 cents a KWH of $1,971,000 which is probably how the politicians figure its productivity.
Compared to power costs, Chicago and east, 15 cents a KWH looks cheap, but once it gets into their utilities that price will double as their coal and hydro prices do because of taxes and other limits on transmission and one may suspect the utility operations money efficiency too.
Gerald | |
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Windmills or Farm Subsidies?
