Wind power generation?

Question

I own several hundred acres of farmland on which an utility company wishes to lease from me. My question is, why could I not contract to build my own windpower generator and keep the profits to myself?

Answer 1

First - you need the permits to build a generating station on your property (since you've indicated that you're doing this for profit, rather than generating solely for your personal use). These include structural permits for the actual construction, environmental impact studies to determine your equipment's result on surrounding flora and fauna (and your neighbors), and the safety considerations for operating a generating facility.

Second - the cost of the equipment itself. To generate the power, you need the windmill (or other source). Depending on the power output, this could range anywhere from $50k to upwards of $5M per unit. Add to that the cost of safety equipment (like breakers, current limiters, transformers, freqeuncy converters, and all the monitoring of the rotating machinery) and the maintenance requirements.

Then you need buy-in from the local utility ... unless you're also going to the expense of building your own power delivery network (including step-up and step-down transformers, power lines and poles, downstream switchgear, ground fault detection, etc). Most utilities don't want to lose what they perceive as their "monopoly" on the distribution system, so they charge you a significant amount to tie in a generating capacity.

Lastly - the power generated is not constant; the wind generator only operates in a fairly narrow band of wind speeds,and you'd have to account for downtime for maintenance (on your system AND on the utility side). This means your investment is realistically only making money about 25 percent of the time, over the span of a calendar year. At a selling price of 3 cents per kilowatt hour (which is where you'd have to be to be competitive), you'd be hauling in

(365*24*0.25)*0.03 = $ 65.70 per kilowatt output from your generator.

To recover your inital outlay and ongoing maintenance in a five-year span, that would mean you'd need to have a unit capable of producing at least 1.0 MW (if you could build one for about $250k).

Answer 2

You can. But who are you going to sell the electricity to?

To your neighbors? Probably requires license from the state, which they may not grant.

To the utility company? possible, if they want to buy it.

And where are you going to get the capitol to do the construction? Don't forget all the special permits you need from the EPA and other agencies. And don't forget the maintenance costs.

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