The Wind Bargain Gets Better

Report: Developing a wind farm is cheaper than ever

Heather Richards, November 5, 2017 (Caspar Star-Tribune)

“…New wind power costs between $30 and $60 dollars per megawatt hour, not counting a federal tax subsidy. It’s cheaper than solar, gas and coal. Add in the federal helping hand and the cost of new wind falls to between $14 and $52, according to [Lazard’s latest annual Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis (LCOE 11.0)]…[Power Company of Wyoming’s] Chokecherry Sierra Madre wind farm is under construction for the first phase of a 1,000 turbine farm…And Rocky Mountain Power, the state’s largest utility, would like to repower their entire wind fleet in the state, as well as bring 1,100 new megawatts online...[For those opposed to the federal tax subsidy to wind and supportive of Wyoming’s struggling coal sector, wind gets an unfair deal…[but the Lazard report shows wind] is simply beating traditional power sources on its own…Last year, coal would have had a break-even of between $60 and $143 per megawatt hour…A combined cycle natural gas plant’s break-even cost is between $42 and $78 per megawatt hour…[and nuclear] is between $112 and $183…” click here for more

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