“The spreadsheet levelized energy cost analyses prepared by IWT project developers, currently based on 25 year useful service lives, should be revised to 17 years, to better reflect the real world, rather than the “Alice in Wonderland” world.”
“However, it appears the capacity factors of wind energy projects are much less than estimated by project developers. As a result, the capital costs and environmental impacts of implementation would be much greater, because a greater capacity of wind turbines and transmission systems would be required to generate the same quantity of energy.” [EnergyCollective.com]
American Tradition Institute issued an excellent report a few weeks ago that found the full cost of wind electricity is almost twice what is usually reported once hidden costs and subsidies are taken into account. You can get the report here:
http://www.atinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Hidden-Cost.pdf
I’m shocked that the windmill supporters have been exaggerating the energy output of their machines! How can this be?
/sarc
Let’s restate another point about subsidies and costs: if the “alternative” energy source costs more in real terms than the “conventional” source it’s to displace, it probably does more environmental harm than the “conventional” source does.
Wind may be free but of course turbines, blades, towers, transmission lines etc are costly and their production produces environmental stresses as surely as a coal plant or an oil well does.