Cost Estimates of T. Boone’s Colossal Wind Farm Keep Rising
T. Boone Pickens, the oil-baron-turned-wind-power-wildcatter, keeps bumping up the estimated cost of the world’s largest wind farm, which he’s building in Texas. Pickens tells the Living On Earth radio show that the whole 4,000 megawatt wind project, including the cost of building his own transmission lines, will cost a bloomin’ $12 billion. He’s already put in an order for at least $2 billion worth of wind turbines from GE, which is enough to power 300,000 homes (the completed wind farm is estimated to power 1.3 million homes).
Back in April, he told the Guardian the project would cost $10 billion (likely before he added transmission line costs), and admitted to them that that size and cost was “mind boggling.” And that’s up from just last September, when he told the Wall Street Journal that the project would cost $6 billion.
So, why the rising price tag? The price of building wind farms has been going up as the cost of the raw materials to build the turbines, as well as demand for turbines themselves, have been lifting the upfront costs. And the costs of building Texas’ transmission lines, which wind farms need to bring the power to the people, are proving expensive, too. Texas could spend anywhere between $2.95 billion and $6.38 billion on laying new lines, according to a recent report.
Pickens is willing to spend another $2 billion on building transmission lines for his massive wind farm, instead of waiting for the state or a utility to build them. He just can’t wait for slow-moving third parties to hold him back. In true Pickens style he explains his reasoning to Living on Earth:
So to fit the schedule of when we’re gonna be ready to start spinning, which will be the last of 2011, we need to have transmission in place at that time, and this is the only way we can time it to work that way. And, see, everything has gotta happen fast for me, because I’m 80 years old.
Gotta love that.
Photo courtesy of wikimedia
wow! why so much, this is not good to provide incentives for others to do it.
[...] Schneider of Bloomberg TV about algae-based biofuels. Somebody get this man a speed date with Uncle Moneybags already! Then there’s the prospect of turning algae into…[wait for [...]
[...] No Comments Posted June 20th, 2008 at 12:00 am in Big Green T. Boone Pickens is set to spend $12 billion on the world’s largest wind farm in the Texas panhandle, but his water investment in the area — around a $100 million so far [...]
[...] cost of wind power (with the required transmission lines, etc.) is about $3 per watt, as seen here. So it would cost about $3 billion dollars worth of wind generation facilities to replace the [...]
[...] stands to gain considerably from his proposed plan, as his $12 billion wind investment is still under construction. But the 80-year-old oilman is convinced we can do it. We just need the [...]
[...] exploration company Mesa Petroleum into one of the largest independent operators in the U.S. and plans to spend $12 billion on building the world’s largest wind farm. He thinks on a grand scale. Even if natural [...]
[...] exploration company Mesa Petroleum into one of the largest independent operators in the U.S. and plans to spend $12 billion on building the world’s largest wind farm. He thinks on a grand scale. Even if natural [...]
[...] is expected to begin in 2009, to the tune of roughly $2 billion each. Pickens is set to spend $12 billion on the world’s largest wind farm in the Texas panhandle, while he expects his water investment in the area — around a $100 [...]
[...] is expected to begin in 2009, to the tune of roughly $2 billion each. Pickens is set to spend $12 billion on the world’s largest wind farm in the Texas panhandle, while he expects his water investment in the area — around a $100 [...]
[...] a loss like this is exactly why Pickens is diversifying and placing such a large bet — $12 billion by last count — on wind. We’ll see if that, as well as his water investments, pays [...]
Notice the exorbitant costs to build totally unreliable power generators: Dominion is building a 1600 MW nuclear plant in Virginia : estimated cost : $4,000
per kilowatt. Pickens is building these useless windturbines (T.Boone don’t understand that “nuklare stuff”) and spending at least $4,000 per kilowatt. But those are rated, not actual, capacities, which in the case of the nuclear plant would be about the same, since nuclear plants typically operate above 95% of their rated capacity, but wind operates anywhere from 18% to 37% of its capacity. Typically 25% would be close, so the actual
cost per generated kilowatt is closer to $16,000 for
wind power. But nuclear plants last 60 years, at least twice as long as a windmill, making the proper comparison figure for wind closer to $32,000 per kilowatt (for 60 yeasr). But that’s not the end of the excessive wind costs : wind cannot meet peak demand needs and so we must build new , controllable plants every year when our demand increases 2%. Thus wind power must be duplicated, making its comparative costs even greater. It’s obvious that the global wind industry and it environmentalist shills are defrauding the public
when they make their preposterously misleading ecomonic arguments. Wind costs a bundle, and produces small amounts of unreliable, unpredictable power , mostly when its not needed.
Tom - since most of your comment sounds like a Rush Rehash - perhaps you might offer up some engineering sources to back it up?
The cost per KW of the Bush administration’s foray into clean coal - $6,500. FutureGen’s budget is up to $1.8 billion for the construction of a 275 MW power plant. Nevermind the future costs of sourcing coal, paying miners, transportation of coal, maintenance of complex systems (and the fact that you STILL have to get rid of mercury and toxins in the fly ash)…how much does additional wind cost?