A new windmill - cost analysis NO DON'T

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. From dispatches from TJICistan comes this perfect example of why 99% of large scale alt.energy is a total scam:

being �green� means turning your brain off and destroying value

Wind turbine is alternative energy source in Medford
[ Medford ] is in the process of commissioning a wind turbine at the John J. McGlynn Sr. Elementary and Middle School.

The site is just along the highway and the Mystic River near the Route 16 exit and visible to thousands of people using the road.

The turbine�s hub is 131 feet high and its three blades are 34 feet long. It was made by Northern Power of Barre, Vt., and is expected to generate 170,000 kilowatt hours, or about $25,000 worth of electricity per year. That�s about 10 percent of the school�s electricity bill, said Patty Barry, director of the city�s energy and environment office.

Barry and Mayor Michael J. McGlynn showed the turbine to a reporter yesterday, a day after the official ribbon-cutting ceremony�

the $644,000 Medford project�

Let�s assume that you can borrow money at 5%.

Let�s assume that the turbine has a lifetime of 33 years, and thus depreciates 3% per year.

Let�s assume that maintenance costs are 1% of the purchase price, or $6k / year.

The cost to operate the turbine is now $57,960 per year.

�and it delivers - maybe! - $25k per year in electricity.

The citizens of Medford would be better off gathering every January first, taxing themselves $30,000, putting it in a pile, and lighting it on fire.

Every year.

For 30 years.

If they did that, they�d come out almost $3,000 per year ahead of this idiotic plan.

Nice work, leftists.

And the numbers are the same all over the world. Same for Photo-Voltaic as well. From Don Lancaster:

As we have seen, not one net watthour of pv photovoltaic electricity has ever been generated. And the breakeven date is clearly falling further and further behind with heavy new investment in CIGS and related technologies.

Net energy breakeven can reasonably be expected something like eight years after total fully burdened, subsidy free panel costs reach twenty five cents per peak watt. Until then, the pv panels are clearly gasoline destroying net energy sinks. And are in no manner renewable nor sustainable.

And: More in our Energy Fundamentals and More Energy Fundamentals tutorials. The links for Don's stuff opens up as PDF files. It's a scam folks -- keep moving along, nothing to see...