New Wind farm in Pennsylvania: Built basically on top of an old coal mining ridge.
Details on the Casselman Wind Farm project in PA:
- 23 turbines @1.5 MW each: 35 MW
- Located on an Appalachian Ridge Line
- 35 MW is about 10% of the power demand for Eugene
- Average employment was 100 workers during construction
- OPM Jobs = 3
- Construction began in May 2007 - Partially on line in Feb 2008 - fully on line in Oct 2008
- Total project cost = $61 million ($1750/KW) - current wind costs vary from $1500 to $2000 per KW.
- Project services 10,000 homes.
- Supposed you meter the product at 5 cents per KWH - what is the payback time to recover $61 million?
- @1/3 efficiency timescale = 12 years
- @ 7 cents per kwh and 40% efficiency time = 7.5 years
- @ 3 cents per khw and 1/2 efficiency = 21 years
- Hence, this is a sound investment.
Scaling Castleman Wind Farm to Eugene:
1. Would now use 3 MW turbines: 100 * 3 MW = 300 MW
2. Coburg Ridge Line (hypothetical)
3. Employ 500 workers during construction
4. OPM Jobs = 14
5. Construction time would be about 24 months
6. Total project cost would be about 2/3 per unit cost for 1.5 MW wind farm
would be $350 million
7. Payback scenarios:
a) capacity factor = 0.25; price = .05 per kwh; 10.6 years
b) capacity factor = 0.25; price = .075 per kwh; 7.1 years
c) capacity factor = 0.33; price = .075 per kwh; 5.4 years
d) capacity factor = 0.40; price = .10 per kwh; 3.3 years
Another example:
The Perrin Wind Farm (near Williams AZ)
- 62 turbines @1.5 MW each: 93 MW nameplate
- Located on flat plateau west of the Grand Canyon
- Average employment was 250 workers during construction
OPM Jobs = 6
- Construction began in August 2011 - fully on line in April 2012 (12 MW per month)
- Total project cost = $190 million ($2040/KW)
- Supposed you meter the product at 5 cents per KWH - what is the payback time to recover $190 million?
- @1/3 efficiency timescale = 13 years
- @7 cents per kwh and 40% efficiency time = 8 years
Hence, this is a sound investment.
|