Why are wind Turbines so expensive?

Question

I read in the paper a school wanted to buy one but it supposedly cost 2 million dollars. All it is is a big propellar, a generator, maybe a transmission, connected to storage batteries, and basic wiring.

Answer 1

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Primarily, windmills cost a lot because they are not being mass produced - if you only made 100 cars a year, each car would cost $300,000.


Also, though, the windmill costs money because it's made of stuff, and stuff costs money. The "big propeller" is actually more like 3 or 4 big airplane wings. The generator would be just like the alternator in your car, except the size of your whole car. If you want to put that power in batteries - we'll get to them in a second - then you need to turn it into DC power, which will require a sophisticated inverter, and the batteries would be huge lead-acid batteries.

I propose a counter-question - how much does a coal plant cost? Or a natural gas plant?

Answer 2

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind.

Answer 3

Expect more examples of price gouging as Global Warming hysteria heats up. We used to point the finger at Big Oil, next it will be Big Wind and Big Sun. Big Corn led by Archer Daniels Midland is already at work by the way.

Answer 4

it is the cost of dynamo tht we use to convert wind energy to electric......this device is very costly......

Answer 5

Most of the wind turbines that are used commercially are a lot bigger than you might think. They don't look quite so big from far away but the generator box you see on top is actually a control room big enough for several people to fit in. The blades on some of the largest generators are over 100 ft in length....that's a lot of metal and very expensive.

Most wind turbines have very sophisticated electronics that are able to turn the blades and regulate the speed of the turbine based on the wind speed and direction.

Add all that up and I think 2 million is a pretty good deal

Answer 6

The kiddies in that school district are getting a good education.....wind power is not as free as the aging ex-hippies in the school administration say it is.

Answer 7

That answer is too simple, just look at the big money behind a lot of the wind power farms, Big government or Big Oil.

Answer 8

You seem to have the basics down, build your own, that's what I did! I had most of the stuff already from years of collecting junk!

Answer 9

Yeah, what Sam said, build your own since you seem to know what it takes to make one.

If we have more independent Wind Turbine builders, then the cost of them would go down due to more competition.

It's such a shame when greed ruins great inventions like wind turbines.

Sure we all want to make money, but how much do we really need?

Whatever happened to doing things for the betterment of society just for the heck of it?

America is way too full of fat cat money hogs. This wind turbine thing is just another issue that gets my blood boiling like after seeing the movie Sicko.

Way way wayyyyyyy!!!! Too much greed in this country and it doesn't do a dang bit of good for the majority.

If the poor rise up and make a stand, then there'd be some nice changes made.

But I just wonder if that will ever happen?

Do we care enough to make a stand?

Answer 10

They are huge and to get 2 Megawatts from wind it is a tremendous force on top of a 100 FT tower. This requires a massive foundation and tower to support it. It also takes a lot of land area.

Source(s):

Worked around hundreds of them in west Texas

Answer 11

A 2 megawatt wind generator should cost somewhere in the neighbor hood of $1 million dollars. That is a lot of money. But the 600 megawatt coal fired power plant that is proposed for my area will cost $1.2 to $1.6 Billion. Alot more money. Or if we look at it another way $2 to $2.5 Million per megawatt. Makes wind look a little cheaper.
Now if you look at another important fact. Our government grants the power companies rate hicks to pay for these new plant the rate hick will end up being around 8 cent per kilowatt. So 8 cents per kilowatt time 600,000 or 600 megawatt we get $48,000 per hour multiplied by 8760 hour in a year which equals $4,2 billion a year. Now do you see why we are building new power plants. Some companies are going to make a fortune off the rate payers and government official are going on cruises.

Answer 12

In the 1980s they only cost 50 - 60 thousand each.