Calculating Cost for a Wind Power Plant

What watt??

I'm figuring that out right now. first, the cost of the land, second, the cost of the material...very simple...does this make sense to you?

Have you done your feasibility study on it. From there you can determine how muich your wind power costs. the bigger the capacity the higher the cost.

Wind power cost can be calculated as below -

1. How much to built Wind turbine?

2. How much to run & maintain it?

3. What is the life cycle (generally, turbine manufacturers calculates it for 20 years)?

4. How much electricity produced?

5. Cost to which electricity is sold per unit?

Please calaculate like this -

{(1)+[(2)x20]}-{[(4)x(5)]x20}

If the result of this is zero, then it is a break even, if negative then please think about the investment into wind turbines, if positive then hurray, you have wind power.

6. How much to dismantle and remove it at the end of its life, calculated as the present value of future worth.

In the following we will provide some basic conditions for making a feasible Wind Power Plant.

Wind speed:

A wind turbine starts generating electric power when the wind speed is above 4 meter per second and is generating power at full capacity when the wind speed is approximately 14 meter per second. The power generation by wind turbines therefore depend of the wind speed at the Site of installation. The first investigation shall therefore be contact to Meteorological stations in order to obtain information about the annual average wind speed at the intended Site of installation. Information from a meteorological station can be used as a guideline only.

In order to get reliable information about the wind speed it is necessary to install a 60m high wind measuring mast at the intended Site of installation and measure the wind speed for at least one year.

In order to make a feasible wind power plant the annual average wind speed shall be 7 meter per second as a minimum.

Reliable electric grid:

As it is the electric power from a public Power Plant who supply power for excitation of the generator in the wind turbine, the Wind Power Plant shall be terminated to a strong and stable high Voltage electric grid. A Wind Power Plant can not operate as a single power supplier. Therefore there must be a strong and stable high Voltage grid close to the Site of installation. At power cut the wind turbines stop immediately. Therefore a wind power plant does not help power cut.

Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).

To be sure that the investors get paid for the power generated by the Wind Power Plant there shall be a Government law demanding the utility companies to purchase the electric power generated by a Wind Power Plant. There shall also be a Government law guaranteeing the price for power delivered to the high Voltage grid.

Project costs.

For your guidance please be advised that the price for a total project will be in the range of 1.7 million USD per MW installed capacity.

Crane availability.

In order to install a wind power plant the following mobile cranes shall be available:

1 Crawler crane of 500 ton. 80 meters height under the hook as a minimum

1 Crawler crane of 250 ton. 35 meters height under the hook as a minimum

1 Mobile crane of 150 – 200 ton

1 Rough terrain tele fork lift of 4.5 ton.

The above mention conditions are basic conditions which shall be in place in order to make a feasible Wind Power plant.

We will therefore recommend you to start investigating if these conditions are in place for your project.

AWAT ALI

MECHANICAL ENGINEER

Member of kurdistan engineer union

E-mail awatali_3@yahoo.com

May I congratulate you for detailed and pertinent answer to the question. It would be good when more participants will proceed same way

I talked to the professor/entrepreneur who started the company below over twenty years ago when I was thinking about building one. He's got alot of experience with it though not sure a ready to wear windmill is cheap enough to provide the rate of return you might be looking for. Build it yourself and the ror can be very high if done correctly and in the right place, meaning low initial investment, high wind, and high rates.

http://www.bergey.com/

So you to want to slow down the Earth. Too many turbines = disaster in the making!

That's funny, ...slow the earth...

Really though, isn't the most important benefit of wind power the long term effect on the environment? Not to sound like a paranoid hippy, but isn't that what alternative energy is all about. Sure you can calculate the cost of building, operating, and maintaining a wind-powered substation, (the energy utility I work for has dozens of wind ops substations), but the piece of mind you get from harnessing responsible energy, ....priceless!