Are Wind Turbines Worth the Investment?: A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Wind Turbines
Hannah Burkhardt, Virginia Tech
Among alternative energy strategies, wind energy evokes some of the most contradictory public opinion. Some concerns include interrupted scenic views, the potential for noise, impacts on wildlife, burdens on the community, or the cost. Decision-makers must consider how their constituents and future consumers will feel. In this article, I want to focus on the latter topic of that list: the cost-benefit analysis of wind energy. I will explore current costs regarding construction, consumer costs, and more, along with their benefits to local communities.
Before we begin, let’s investigate some essential vocabulary in how power or energy is measured in kilowatts (kW or 1000 Watts), megawatts (MW or 1 million Watts), and gigawatt (GW or 1 billion Watts). Figure 1. provides a useful representation of energy sources.
Figure 1. Units of energy and everyday examples
Currently, the industry is at a strange point where vast amounts of turbines are being decommissioned. This is due to the massive push made roughly twenty years for more renewable energy, which causes a lot of wind turbines to be installed. While finding an unbiased statistic for removal was difficult, Xcel Energy offered an estimate similar to other findings. They claim it would take $532,000 to fully decommission each of their land-based wind turbines, though they maintain that this is conservative (TMR),
Current Cost
Many types of expenses are involved with wind farms. After planning and purchasing or leasing land, the first physical process is construction, so that's where we'll start. From the early 2000’s up until 2020 the cost of land based wind farm development has changed very little. Of course the size of a project can drastically change costs, it is generally safe to say that construction costs for land-based wind farms are between $1,200 to $1,800 per kilowatt. Offshore wind farms on the other hand are much more of an up and coming business with their average cost between $3,500/kW to $4,000/kW.
Another important difference to highlight is the cost of maintenance for the two different areas. Due to the conditions often seen offshore, there are much more technicalities to consider when having to maintain an offshore wind farm. These additional details mean that offshore wind farm operating costs are on average 22.15 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), whereas land- based is at 8.66 cents per (kWh)
Now, moving away from the construction side, it’s important to take a step back and investigate the cost trends in wind turbines. The apparent trend as this industry has continued to grow and even improve is a decrease in cost. These trends tie into a key aspect of wind turbines and wind farms. Due to the minimal maintenance needed after construction, they essentially begin to pay for themselves. As technology continues to improve, there is hope that the lifespan of these turbines will continue to grow. An average turbine, both on and offshore, tends to have a lifespan of 20-30 years. By that time the cost of wind energy has been reduced to about $0.07 per kWh.
But what about right now? Currently, the industry is at a strange point where vast amounts of turbines are being decommissioned. This is due to the massive push made roughly twenty years for more renewable energy, which causes a lot of wind turbines to be installed. While finding an unbiased statistic for removal was difficult, Xcel Energy offered an estimate similar to other findings. They claim it would take $532,000 to fully decommission each of their land-based wind turbines, though they maintain that this is conservative (TMR).
Benefits
Fortunately, another prominent trend with wind farms is that, over time, their capacity has increased. “In the past seven years alone, wind power has tripled in capacity from 25 GW to 75 GW” (EERE). This data is also clearly presented in the graph within the last section. However, this is not the only benefit the wind industry can provide. For a long time, the biggest factor that has improved the public opinion of wind farms is how many jobs they can provide.
Last year alone, in 2023, the Department of Energy reported an additional 5,238 workers, meaning a growth rate of 4.4% for offshore wind alone (DOE, 10). Regarding onshore wind, a great example comes from Iowa, where 2,300 construction, 270 permanent, and 75 on-site jobs were created (Adeyeye, 8). This growth is shown in the graph above, where wind energy is the second-highest job provider in energy technology. More than just helping employment, these wind farms have been proven to help the whole community. In one report, data was gathered from rural communities across the country. They found that “80% of workers spend money in the community they work in, and 87% spend most of their money where they live” (Kotarbinski, 7).
Now, say you want to begin your wind farm career. Not all locations or jobs are created equal. For standard maintenance roles, someone on land could make upwards of $61,770 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2023). On the other hand, working in an offshore port might have a salary of up to $62,800 (Stefek, 28). Furthermore, this chart helps show just how much this workforce relies on technicians, which would be the main employment area for these communities. Even so, with a quarter of the workforce consisting of even higher paying jobs, it’s clear there is much room for one to grow and advance in this industry.
Conclusion
As someone with an engineering mind, it is always my goal to seek out a problem and then fix it. It was with this attitude that I originally approached the research for this topic. Thankfully, although it meant a change of heart regarding jobs and communities, wind turbines do seem to have a great benefit. Whether it's in a rural community or off a city's ports, these jobs are going to help the people who need them most while reducing the environmental impacts of relying on traditional energy sources.
About Me
Hello, and thank you very much for reading my, now, second blog post. My name is Hannah Burkhardt, and I am a senior at Alexandria City High School. I am an engineering intern at Virginia Tech’s Thinkabit Lab where I am exploring different fields that interest me. Currently, I’m focused on researching renewable energy in the civil engineering field. Overall I'm most interested in energy, civil, and environmental components of the world. My goal for this project was to learn more about the wind industry and wind turbines and to continue my research from my previous post, which you can check out here.
To learn more or connect with me please use my email, hewburkhardt@gmail.com, or my LinkedIn page
Works Cited
Adeyeye, Kehinde, et al. “Exploring the Environmental and Economic Impacts of Wind Energy: A Cost-Benefit Perspective.” International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, vol. 27, no. 8, 2020, pp. 718-731. Taylor & Francis, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/13504509.2020.1768171.
Department of Energy. United States Energy & Employment Report 2023. 2023. Department of Energy, https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-06/2023%20USEER%20REPORT-v2.pdf.
EERE. “Economics and Incentives for Wind.” WINDExchange, 2022, https://windexchange.energy.gov/projects/economics. Accessed 13 August 2024.
EERE. “Revolution...Now Rewind: Illustrating the Wind Energy Story.” Department of Energy, 7 October 2016, https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/revolutionnow-rewind-illustrating-wind-energy-story. Accessed 13 August 2024.
Kotarbinski, Matthew, Keyser, David, and Stefek, Jeremy. Workforce and Economic Development Considerations from the Operations and Maintenance of Wind Power Plants. United States: N. p., 2020. Web. doi:10.2172/1735633.
“Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.” Department of Energy, https://www.energy.gov/eere/office-energy-efficiency-and-renewable-energy. Accessed 12 May 2025.
Stefek, Jeremy, Constant, Chloe, Clark, Caitlyn, Tinnesand, Heidi, Christol, Corrie, and Baranowski, Ruth. U.S. Offshore Wind Workforce Assessment. United States: N. p., 2022. Web. doi:10.2172/1893828.
Transparency Market Research. “Wind Turbine Decommissioning Market Analysis 2030.” Transparency Market Research, https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/wind-turbine-decommissioning-market.html. Accessed 14 August 2024.
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