FREE Energy? From the Sun? Beer Coaster Maths.
Beer Coaster & Napkin Maths includes an error allowance for spillage but where the context remains relevant.
How much does it really cost?
Murry W Rhodes © 2023,
An end-text cited list is below. In-text citing is an [x] reference only.
A 2 Mega Watt Wind Turbine ( WT ) cost around $3-4 M Each to supply and install. [3]
They have a working shelf life of around 20 Years with approx. $1M in ongoing maintenance.
Let’s say $5M Supply and maintain them before we need to replace one WT.
At a CPI index of around 3% per annum compounded over 20 Years the replacement cost of a Wind turbine may be around 1.03^20 = 1.81, Beer coaster maths around twice the original price.
So around $10M replacement cost and $2M maintenance there after for the next twenty years.
An so on and so forth.
So let’s say that you are a government and if there was no profit baring going on somebody needs to pay for the initial instalment and maintenance plus the replacement cost to replace the old wind turbine.
This is why your electricity prices via Green Free energy from the sun may be costing a whole lot more than you know.
Remember this only for one 2MW Wind Turbine WT. How many houses or consumers does one turbine provide for? Where is the value for money? For the FREE energy from the sun.
A 2MW WT at 30% Efficiency produces 1GJ or 1 Billion Joules of energy every 20 or so days.
1 GJ = 280kWh [1]
So 360 days in the year / 20 day = 18 x production so that’s 18 Gj or 18 x 280kWh = 5040 kWh per year. Give or take. Per Turbine.
According to several sources, the average household usage of power seems to be around 10 MW hrs or 10,000 kWh per year. [2]
So we need two turbines to power one house for one year. How much does one turbine cost?
So let’s see. At the end of twenty years you have paid $5M. So around $250,000.00 per year for FREE energy. But because you will also be charged the price of the replacement costs so the replacement can occur. We add the $10M to the original $5M dollars an you are paying around $750,000.00 per year for 1 WT. But you need 2 WT just to power your house. So in the first twenty years of having FREE energy the cost is around $1.5M per year.
So FREE energy from the sun costs. $1,500,000 / 10,000kWh = $150.00 per kWh
In Australia, 2023 cost of power is < $00.50/ kWh Let’s say it cost $00.50. x 10,000 kWh per year = $5000.00/ Per Year. [6]
Is it saving the planet from Atmospheric Co2?..
Google searches throw all sorts of crazy figures at you. Both side of the fence have multiple verified sources and few of them seem to agree so we’ll just stick some basic facts.
1Ton of Coal = 2,500 kWh => 2.5 kWh/kg [4]
1 Kg Coal gives us around 2.5 Kg Co2. WHAT THE? How can 1Kg of stuff give us 2.5 Kilos of stuff?
You have to also weigh oxygen atoms. [5]
Well, while it is up and running our single 2MW WT at 30% is producing 1 GJ or 280 kWh of energy every 20 days, this equates to 280/2.5 = 112Kg Coal. Per 20 Days. which 360/20 = 18 so 18x112= 896Kg per year. Per Turbine. For twenty years 17,920 Kg of coal not needed to be burned. Nearly 18 Tons. Although during that 20 Years, the cost of maintenance includes an oil change so there’s some ongoing carbon use but likely a small amount. This is promoted in manufacturer’s sites to suggest the cost of wind power is 6 grams where as the cost of coal is 900 grams for the same power output. I can only assume that these oil changes are from where that 6-gram figure comes from. Anyway, there’s more…
So at the moment, we haven’t accounted for the Energy used to mine and smelt the minerals or the fuel oil transport costs for delivery and installation. Which a 2MW WT is about 80% Steel, 15% plastics, 4% Iron, 1% Copper. Most Wind turbine companies are happy to boast the light weights of one single blade is around 12 tonnes, [7] but I couldn’t find any reliable sources saying just how heavy these things weigh. Some say around 260 tonnes and that it takes 170 Tonnes of Coking Coal and around 300 Tonnes of Iron ore. [8] But the info is sketchy at best.
Manufacturers kind of avoid telling us how much energy is required to manufacture these wind turbines. One wind turbine to deliver takes a few truck loads and cranes which is fuel, oil and tyre wear too. One of the smaller attributes but it’s part of the process. Have a look for yourself. I looked in transport logistics, engineer notes and other places to try to find simply how much the total body of these things weighs. It’s crazy not to include the weight of things. I mean why not include it? It’s only weight. Anyway, good luck on finding their weights.
So according to steelmakers, it takes around 770 Kg of coal to make 1 ton of steel. [9]
If one turbine blade weighs only 12 tonnes then three rotor blades = 36 tonnes = 36 x 770kg = 27,720 = 28,000 kg Coal. Just for the blades of one turbine.
So over twenty years the 2MW WT saves 18 Tons of coal being burned to make electricity but uses 28 Tonne of coal to be burned to make just the three blades. Let’s pretend that the body holding up the turbine weighs only 100 tonnes. That 100 x 770 = 77,000 Kg or 77 Tons. So all up it costs around 100 Tonnes of coal to burn to make a device that saves 18 tonnes to be burned as electricity. At this rate, one wind turbine produces more than four times as much Co2 to make and operate than simply burning coal for electricity.
So one house needs 10,000 kWh per year. 10,000/2.5 = 4000kg Coal.
Cost of coal approx 10-15c / Kg so 4000 x $0.10 = $400.00 Raw material.
$0.04 per kWh
I leave your conclusions up to you but to me, $150.00 per kWh is more expensive than $00.50 and burning four times more coal to produce a device that is promoted to save the planet by reducing the coal being burned and calling it all Free energy from the sun seems a little out of whack don’t you think? Maybe I need another beer and I’ll change my mind despite the maths.
Anyway, it’s just beer coaster maths. It’s not an authorise publication and there have been some drunken roundings along the way. The best thing about these roundings is that even if they are not 100% precise, they are still well within a reasonable limit of the variable error to tell the story well enough and make the same observation that FREE from the sun is more expensive than coal from the ground and if we are trying to save the planet by reducing the amount of coal being burned then making these devices to do that may not be as genius as the promoters behind the selling of such miracles tell us it is. Shame on them for fooling so many. They are the sirenian mermaids of climate change fears and merchants of miracles and tears and they have done it oh so well.
Kind Regards
Murry Rhodes
P.S Don’t forget to pop into the gift shop. Every purchase helps me afford to drink more beer so I can do more beer coaster maths. I also volunteer to help repair some of the planet’s ecosystems. Not political stuff just hands-on helping flora and fauna recover in areas where our ways of progress have left scars.
Visit www.muzduz.com to find out more.
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