Economic aspects of wind power

Construction of wind power plant is related investment cost (in building phase) and operation cost (during exploitation). All of this cost have to be pick up the tab in first step from own asset (around 30% of total cost), subsidy and credit, and in the second step from incomes and energy derivation certificates. Investment cost consist of: equipment price (its around 65-80% of total cost for landlocked farm), cost of ground purchase (2-6% of total cost), cost of wind condition research (0,2-0,3% of total cost), cost of technical projects (1,5-2% of total cost), cost of geologic research (0,2-0,3% of total cost), cost of administration and law fee (0,15-0,2% of total cost), cost of road infrastructure (1,5-3% of total cost), cost of power plant substructure (6-8% of total cost), cost of power plant connection to the grid (9-19% of total cost – the cost consist of: inner MV grid, substation and in certain cases overhead line), insurance cost (3-4% of total cost). At present average capital costs of investment fluctuate between €1000 and €1200 per kW (including connection cost) for onshore technology and from €1200 to €2000 per kW (excluding connection cost) for offshore technology. In case of offshore installation in distance above 50km from the coast cost may be above €3000 per kW. Above-mentioned costs dependence are quite different for offshore technology. In offshore wind power plant the highest cost is related with substructure and connection with the grid. Often the local grid is weak and not accommodates to transmit energy from large farm. Therefore often offshore investments require additional investment cost for grid upgrade. Moreover the grid connection cost may be increased in a case of DC grid connection, what require to apply expansive rectifier and power inverter substation. Thus above-mentioned capital cost of offshore wind power plant is changing from €1200 to €2000 and in special case may be higher. [1], [11], [43]

Operation cost consists of: tenancy cost, cost of concession processing, rates cost, service cost, insurance cost, cost of law and account operation, cost of management. At present average operation cost fluctuate between 35 and 45 €/(kW*year) for onshore and from 90 to 120 €/(kW*year) for offshore (depends from distance from shore). Average lifetime of wind power plant is about 25 years. [43]

Potent policy of the EU in the RES promotion provides 6 instruments of support for renewable technologies: feed-in tariff system, feed-in premium system, renewable or quota obligations, tax incentives or exemptions, fiscal incentives, investment grants. All of the EU countries obligate to establish minimum one of mentioned instrument. In each country is different level of support however it provides to the RES technology development. In Germany and Spain wind technologies have the most propitious condition thus in that countries has the highest capacity of wind farms. At the end of 2010 in Germany, total capacity of wind devices was about 27,214 GW and in Spain about 20,676 GW. [43], [45]

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