The “wind tree” – 10 times the cost of conventional turbines

Renewables International

A French website has published the probable cost of the plastic tree that will generate electricity. The cost is astonishingly high.

Remember the wind tree? It is designed to generate electricity within urban environments and attractively, the implication being that the fantastic, extremely attractive wind turbines we already have are somehow eyesores.

A French website has stated both of the price of the unit and the probable power production:

“Le productible moyen est estimé à 2 400 kWh… Le prix de départ de chaque arbre devrait approcher les 30 000 euros pièce.”

Assuming that 2,400 kWh is the annual production (the French text does not make that clear), we can now calculate the cost of the electricity that this plastic tree will generate. There is still one unknown: the plastic tree’s expected operating life. I’m going to go out on a plastic limb here and assume that the movable parts on this Lego-like contraption will withstand the elements completely unscathed for 20 years, in line with actual wind turbines that work.

That gives us the following calculation:

30,000 € / (2400 * 20 = 48000 kWh) = 62.5 euro cents ($A92c/kWh

So there you have it: for a mere 10 times the price of the electricity from robust wind turbines that are a marvel of modern engineering and that anyone should be as proud of as all of the other junk we litter our landscapes with, you can have electricity from plastic trees within the built environment. If there has ever been a better way of discrediting modern wind power than with these plastic trees, I can’t think of it.

Source: Renewables International. Reproduced with permission.