Question: Is wind energy expensive?

...Wind Energy is inexpensive...

Wind energy has become the least expensive renewable energy technology in existence.

Since the energy contents of the wind varies with the cube (i.e. the third power of the wind speed), the economics of wind energy depends heavily on how windy the site is. In addition, there are generally economies of scale when building wind parks of many turbines.

Today, according to the Danish electrical power companies, the energy cost to society (the social cost) per kilowatt-hour of electricity from wind is the same as for new coal-fired power stations fitted with smoke scrubbing equipment, i.e. around 0.04 USD per kWh for an average European site.

R&D studies in Europe and the US point to a further fall in energy costs from wind of some 10 to 20 per cent between now and the year 2005.

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