Yeah, that payoff in under a year must assume some huge subsidies or the wind power producers are robbing us blind.
SPP is the regional market authority for the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and the edges of all the states that border those on the east. They are arguably one of the bigger players in the wind generation field. Power is sold by something called the LMP, which represents the going price for power at any point in time for a given location. Generally power in an area is supplied by the least expensive source until it reaches capacity, when the next most expensive source is brought online,and all the producers get paid at the rate of the most expensive unit online at any given time.
As a matter of record, you can look up the average LMP during the last year in the SPP market. I did, and the average for the last year or so is right around $25/mw-hour. Peak throughout the year was about $35,
Using that $35/mw-hour number, a 2 mw unit has the potential to produce a little over $600,000 a year gross in market priced revenue. Current pricing for the units is between 1.5 and 3 million dollars, so at market prices and pumping out maximum power 24/7 you are looking at 3-5 years minimum.
If I installed one in my back yard tomorrow, my provider would pay me $.023 per kw-hour,or $56 for every hour it put out maximum power of 2 mw. That is a little under $500k/year max. I'm in the heart of one of the best wind areas and at my house actual production would be @40% of max, over the course of a year, so I would put $200,000 worth of revenue into my pocket from my turbine. That translates to an 8-15 year payoff on just the turbine itself, likely 20-30 years if you include the distribution upgrade required and the interest on a loan to purchase, longer if it ever requires maintenance or repairs for storm damage.
Those are real numbers I have verified in the last month.
Quick edit: Looks like wind gets a standard $15 mw-hour subsidiary right now from the federal government, but I would probably not be eligible for it for my home based single unit, though there is a bump in what they pay me if I let the utility company take credit for my wind power.
That would bump the annual max up to over $850k, making it possible to pay for the turbine in 2-4 years vs 3-5, as very optimistic minimums. Still no way to do it in under a year.
