First-ever bank-financed wind farm inaugurated
June 6th, 2008 by Jim JustJerome a Paris reports at The Oil Drum: Europe that the first-ever bank-financed wind farm – which he helped finance – is up and running. It will be generating clean energy for the next 20-25 years – at a price guaranteed not to increase for the whole period.
He says that in Europe it’s getting cheaper to buy “subsidized” wind power than regular, “competitive” power on the free market. While the costs for offshore wind are still slightly higher than for onshore, this is likely to change as standardized methods and more production capacity are put in place.
He says that intermittency is a real issue for wind, but one it appears can be addressed at extremely low cost through investment in the grid, something that’s useful in any case if we want resilient systems.
Wind capacity installed each year continues to increase by 20% or more each year worldwide. On some days, wind is already supplying over 100% of Denmark’s electricity needs and 40% of Spain’s.
And as for aesthetics:
