Wind Energy Costs Have Continued To Drop Over Past 4 Years

A new report is showing that maintenance and capital costs for wind energy have continued to drop over the last several years.

According to the Bloomberg New Energy Finance Wind Operations and Maintenance Index (O&M), the operation and maintenance costs for onshore wind projects have dropped from €30,906 per megawatt in 2008 to €19,200 in 2012, at an average about 11% per year.

O&M costs include unscheduled and scheduled maintenance and replacing component parts such as boxes, turbine blades, and generators that allow the farms to run efficiently.

“Wind power has done much to improve its competitiveness against gas-fired and coal-fired generation in recent years, via lower-cost, more technically advanced turbines, and more sophisticated siting and management of wind farms,” said Michael Liebreich, Bloomberg New Energy Finance chief executive. “This new O&M Price Index shows that servicing wind farms at the operating stage is also becoming much more cost-efficient.”

There are a few more good stats out there too, such as the average length of an operations and maintenance contract increasing by nearly 2.5 years, due in part to the willingness of manufacturers to go for longer-term contracts. The United States also has the most competitive O&M pricing. This is all a great indicator that wind energy is definitely headed in the right direction.

Image CC licensed by Charles Cook