Cash Cow Wind Energy
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In 2010 four windturbines placed near Rønland in NW Denmark were the recordholder in generating energy: 63.2 GWh each since 2003, the year of installation. In market electricity prices at 20 euro cent per kwh, this equals to a yield of 12.6 million euro each to date. Extrapolating this over the total life expectancy of 25 year, this amounts to 45 million euro. These are 2 MW windturbines with an estimated price of 2 million euro, excluding maintenance. In financial terms these figures are fantastic. And after 25 years the cost of the tower and foundation is definitely not written off and they could last centuries, think Eiffel tower, built in 1889. Or this still functioning Dutch windmill, dating from ca. 1630. Expect this record to be broken soon. Considering these figures one cannot escape the conclusion that our energy situation is far from hopeless and that the energy transition is mostly a question of awareness and rethinking old assumptions as well as breaking vested interests of the gas & oil industry.