Wind power generation is becoming a low cost category among several power generation technologies

byAllan Der

The fact that wind power generation is a power generation technology using clean energy and that "wind" which is an energy source is infinite has the characteristic of "solar power generation, solar thermal power generation, geothermal power generation"New energy generationAlthough it has been told that it is a low-cost category in the industry, it turned out that the turbine has become enormous, and now it is a lower cost power generation technology than the thermal power plant using natural gas.

Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest Sources of Electricity, and It's Getting Cheaper - Scientific American Blog Network
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/wind-energy-is-one-of-the-cheapest-sources-of-electricity-and-its-getting-cheaper/


2016 Wind Technologies Market Report | Department of Energy
https://energy.gov/eere/wind/downloads/2016-wind-technologies-market-report

According to figures released by the US Department of Energy, 1kWh (kilowatt-hours)The electricity fee paid for about 12 cents (about 13 yen). Breakdown of the electricity charge is "generation cost", "transmission cost", "power business operation cost", and the actual generation cost is about 2 cents (about 2 yen) to 4 cents (about 4 yen) at 1 kWh.

In other words, if we can suppress the generation cost so far, it can be said that it is sufficiently low cost, but the current generation cost of wind power generation is 20 cents (about 22 yen) at 1 MWh, 2 cents at 1 kWh (about 2 yen) It is said that it is down to the standard level. Wind power generation is subsidized by tax deduction, so if you think about equalization power generation cost (LCOE) by overtaking deduction, it will rise to 50 dollars (about 5480 yen) at 1 MWh, but combined cycle natural gas thermal power generation As LCOE is about 54 dollars (about 5900 yen) at 1 MWh, it can be said that wind power generation has come to the point where it can fight natural gas thermal power plants.

The result of this is the improvement of the turbine for wind power generation, especially the wind turbine built in 2016 has an average rotor diameter of 108 m, which is 13% larger than the average of the past five years, and the power generation capacity is also It is an 11% increase over the past 5 years average. In addition, the total wind power generation in the US in 2016 exceeded 82 GW, and in Iowa State and South Dakota State, more than 30% of the electricity generation was due to wind power generation.

Robert Fares of the Department of Energy is prospecting that renewable energy will change from "positioning as alternative energy" to "major source of electricity in the United States."