Mass. School Makes Leap to Wind Power

Lets see $650,000 in grants to save $25,000 per year in electricity if it produces as sold. The article states it should pay for itself in 6-7 years.

Odd I get a pay back of 26 years when I divide $650,000 by $25,000 per year.

The only plus I see is the educational tool unless this is the new math they are using to promote green thinking.

I did not find a stated mean time between failures or expected life time but some how 26 years does not seem a creditable lifetime before incurring more costs.

If I'm missing something someone please explain it to me, but don't the parties involved do the math?

Brad

I think in this case the 6-7 year payback could be nearly correct. I'll assume the turbine didn't cost the total $650k grant as a a 100kw unit should cost between $400k-$500k. The dinger is, the state of Massachusetts will subsidise roughly half of the costs. So a $500k unit would only cost $250k out of pocket. The payback should be 10 years assuming it will require minimal maintenance expenses.

However, when you include the "taxpayers" contribution, the payback is actually double.