I think it might be. I haven't seen any hard numbers on how profitable this energy source is by itself. I know it's really expensive to build and pretty expensive to maintain, and a complete PITA to repair when things go bad. Additionally, what happens to it's profitability if/when subsidies go away? I'm not saying its any more risky than other investments, but theres no way to tell if this dog will hunt more than another right now, IMO.
Good wind projects are generating electricity in the range of 5-7 cents/kWh, based on it's capital costs (20 year project lifetime) and O&M against power revenues. Any power past 20 years is only against the O&M cost. And new technologies are going to drive this down further.
and a complete PITA to repair when things go bad.
Well sure, what power plant isn't expensive and a pain to fix. New turbine designs are increasing durability and making repair simpler -- less need to bring in cranes, in nacelle service winches, etc.
They get the PTC subsidy which is worth 2 cents per kwhr. That only works against a tax liability. The subsidy ends at the end of this year or maybe next I forget. What one wonders is what would happen if the subsity ended. In the world market there is a shortage of windturbines so they would love it if we quite buying them for a while. The real issue is what is driving the market to continue to grow at a rate of 25 percent per year for 10 years. It is obvious that someone is making money or this simply wouldn't be the case.