Update On Cost Of Wind Farms -- April 6, 2015

This is a reminder of the 30-second sound bite regarding the cost of wind and solar energy, compared to coal:

From an August 25, 2014, post, this is 30-second sound bite for "cost of renewable megawatt":

• Solar: $3 million / MW
• Wind: $2.5 million / MW
• Natural gas: $865,000 / MW

I bring this up because a reader sent me a link to an article about seven wind farms being developed in Colorado. The company is spending an additional $640 million on these wind farms:

NextEra Energy Resources LLC, the biggest renewable-energy power company in North America, is spending another $640 million on two massive new wind farms in eastern Colorado.

That’s on top of the “roughly $2 billion” the company has already invested in Colorado via seven existing wind farms that collectively generate 1,175 megawatts worth of power.

It's unclear whether this means an increase in the original capacity of 1,175 megawatts or whether it's additional money to develop this power.

$2,000,000,000 / 1,175 megawatts = $1.7 million / MW which is well below the "usual" $2.5 million/MW. It should be noted that the exact numbers (MW) and the exact dollar amounts are not provided.

$2,640,000,000 / 1,175 megawatts = $2.2 million / MW -- which is a lot closer to the "usual" $2.5 million / MW.