Levelized Cost of Wind Power is $151/MWh

We have recently been bombarded by supporters of wind power saying that the cost of wind generated electricity is at or near parity with conventional generation.  As usual, the zealots have found ways to twist information and conveniently ignore information in the perpetually desperate scheme to push acceptance of wind power.  Willem Post is a brilliant analyst with great credentials.  His conclusion: the total levelized cost* of wind energy averages $151/MWh with NG back-up/balancing and $192/MWh with coal back-up/balancing.

By comparison,

According to the EIA, the levelized cost* of energy from an:

 

- advanced NG combined cycle plant is $65.6/MWh

- advanced coal plant is $123/MWh

- nuclear plant is $108.4/MWh

 

http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/electricity_generation.cfm

I encourage you to read this entire piece by Mr. Post, as it is filled with useful information.  Here are a couple of excerpts, follwed by the link to the piece on The Energy Collective website.

"Various promoters maintain the cost of wind energy is competitive with other sources of energy. As shown below, this is not the case. They often point to power purchase agreements, PPAs, between wind turbine owners and utilities to sell at 5 to 6 c/kWh as proof of market price parity."

"With enough money, even pigs can be made to fly, and even wind energy can be made to appear at grid parity, with much of the costs foisted off onto the public via rate schedules, the tax code and government hand-outs.

 

http://theenergycollective.com/willem-post/310631/more-realistic-co...

*Levelized costs are the net present value of the total cost of new construction (including finance charges during and after construction), maintenance, and operation of a generating plant over its lifetime, expressed in dollars per unit of output, i.e. dollars/MWh. They are used to compare various generating sources to see which sources are the most cost-effective when constructing new plants.

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Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

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(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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