Wind Power Operating, Maintenance Costs Drop 38 Percent
11/28/2012
The costs of wind power are falling, not only for turbine cost and performance, but also for operating and maintaining wind farms. Shown here, Siemens service engineers work in a wind turbine's gondola. (Source: Siemens)
Ann, that is an interesting point you raise. As costs come down, the payback period will shorten.
Actually, I was visiting a cousin who has a farm in central Illinois. As we were driving to lunch one day I noticed the one wind turbine in the area. On asking him about it, he said the problem was the payback period on them. I guess some people get paid rent to allow tuebines to be sited on their land (like farming rents) while others get involved in the financing of the turbines. Even for turnines to power the farm itself, he said that these are way too expensive to be worth it. These guys are very practical and hard headed. If it does not make sense they don't do it. They are also generally well educated, informed and tech savvy these days. They have to be.
On a related issue, I asked him about corn stalks for ethanol production. They were all still laying around his farm and all the others in the area. I guess the problem is that they have to bundled to be sold to the processors. As long as crop prices are so high because of international demand it will not be worth the extra time and effort for the farmer to do this.
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