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| Re: The Eighth Blunder of the Modern World keeps getting bigger? (1985872) | |||
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Re: The Eighth Blunder of the Modern World keeps getting bigger? |
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Posted by Stephen Bauman on Fri Jun 14 14:23:24 2024, in response to Re: The Eighth Blunder of the Modern World keeps getting bigger?, posted by Train Dude on Fri Jun 14 13:28:45 2024. Wind turbines have a useable life expectancy of 20 to 25 years. However bearings and blades have a much shorter life expectancy and are very costly to replace.Just about every engineering study includes capital costs, maintenance costs and salvage value (if any) over the project's life cycle. The cost is usually reflected to present value, which means that future costs are pro-rated according to an assumed interest rate. I either evaluated or wrote many such studies during my engineering career. The financial efficiency of a modern wind farm is highly questionable over the life span. In other words the cost to produce Wind power may far exceed its value. One test of whether to build a project is to evaluate its payback time. The project is supposed to generate a savings. The question is how long do the savings need to accrue until the project's cost is exceeded. If the payback time is longer than the project's life expectancy, then don't build. Here's an analysis of a wind turbine's life cycle cost and payback time. https://todayshomeowner.com/eco-friendly/guides/how-long-does-it-take-a-wind-turbine-to-pay-for-itself/ This article's second paragraph summarizes the results. Determining the payback time of a wind turbine can be complicated. It depends on several factors, including the cost of the turbine, its power output, and the price of electricity. In the example used in this article, we calculated the payback time for a 2.6 MW turbine to be about 6 years and 7 months. The maintenance costs include your concerns regarding blade and bearing failures/replacements. A 7 year payback time is equivalent to a 10.4% return on investment. |
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