Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest, and It's Getting Cheaper

Re:Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest, and It's Getting Cheaper by KVFinn on Monday September 04, 2017 @03:20PM (#15170287)

>Lots of coastline is plenty windy. Why isn't there more offshore wind generation in USA like there is in other nations? My impression is that rich people who own land on the coast have no taste and think that offshore wind generation is an eyesore.

Offshore has promise but it's significantly higher in cost and there isn't a lot of long term data on how well they hold up yet.

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Re:Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest, and It's Getting Cheaper by will_hughes on Monday September 04, 2017 @10:58PM (#15172200)

> there isn't a lot of long term data on how well they hold up yet.

Whats your definition of long term? 26 years[1] is definitely getting there for me.

A part of the reason for that first farm being decomissioned is because new generation turbines are capable of generating more energy than the entire farm[2]. So maintenance costs per kWh are higher than the new gear.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vindeby_Offshore_Wind_Farm [2] http://www.4coffshore.com/windfarms/dong-to-dismantle-vindeb...

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