Is this the Straight Dope?
In the end, it costs more energy (oil) to actually build a windmill, than a windmill will ever generate during its entire lifetime!
From this site:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mke/exitmundi.htm
My dear, eversuffering, significant, other often supports wind power as an alternative energy source and would appreciate the straight dope.
Thanks,
RobZ
Well, yeah! Energy ain’t free (yet). But since it’s profitable financially, it’s okay – follow along. This site claims that wind turbines produce energy that costs as little as $0.05/kWH. That means that they paid someone for the energy that went into making all the parts, paid to lease the land, and all the other associated overhead stuff. To recoup those costs, they have to charge their customers at least 0.05/kWH -- more if they wish to profit. If the costs were lower than the expected total production, they could charge whatever they wanted to: anywhere from .01/MWH (!) to $0.01/kWH less than the local utility, and remain profitable and competitive. As we run out of oil, wind power will eventually become more attractive financially!
Check out this reference for a look at the costs and benefits – if they’re using oil, coal, and other forms of energy (now) to create their wind turbines, but selling wind energy profitably on an open market, then eventually, as non-wind energy prices rise, the people who make wind turbines will rely on wind power to produce some the energy required to build turbines, and economies of scale will eventually make it profitable to use 100% wind power in the wind turbine factories. I bet that last sentence would be hysterical in German.
Basically, as long as the population is wealthy enough to pay for some form of electrical power, there will exist enough wind turbines to provide the power required to build more wind turbines. Our economy may undergo an (ahem) adjustment as business models based on cheap energy go away, but their scenario of a world-wide depression is, I think, exaggerated.
In general, it’s not true.
Here’s a link showing windfarms in US:
http://www.awea.org/projects/index.html
I wish I had a breakdown on the energy to put up a wind farm but I don’t. The claim isn’t that believeable.
Companies do not intentionally invest to lose money. If the same companies invest repeatedly in the same sort of ventures(like is the case for some), they aren’t likely to be always losing money.
Now, we don’t know the amount of oil necessary to build a wind farm, but it should be obvious that it’s some fraction of total costs. In general, the only subsidy into these projects has been the federal production credit, equal to 1.8 cents per kilowatt produced(sold) for ten years, adjusted for inflation. The feds haven’t provided money up front nor have the states, generally speaking.
(Long ago feds did provide upfront money and on some “experimental” or special situations they still do. Also some states. The larger, commercial entities, are what I am primarily referring to)
Concerning these issues, does it seem likely the 1.8 cents is more than the difference between total costs and energy costs, or less. I think it’s much more likely to be less.