My wife and I drove through Kansas on our way to Denver and saw the fields filled with Wind Turbines. We stopped at the Colorado Welcome Center and asked about them. They HATE the Wind Turbines! They said that they cost 1 million each to build. It will take 5 years until they start turning a profit on them, but they are now finding that most of them are breaking after 5 years so the supposed income from them is a farce. Not to mentioned a sizable portion have already broken.
My brother calls them “eagle blenders”.
The standard GE 1.6MW SLE costs about $2.3M installed depending on the size of the entire farm. The erection cranes are about $50K per day so there are economies of scale.
The 5 year pay back depends on location. In high wind areas like West Texas the pay back is much quicker.
The two problems I have with wind turbines are the PTC and the Stimulus spending. 80% of the Stimulus money went to foreign companies (Spain, Germany and China)and distorted the market for 3 years. The PTC should be reduced 10% per years until gone. Enough prime pumping.