Massive Cost Of Wind Energy In South Africa Could Make It Impractical
Wind energy in South Africa seems like an obvious solution when considering how easy it would be to harness the potential energy from the many windy areas in South Africa.
Whilst the importance of wind energy in South Africa should be a priority, the cost of of this renewable type of energy needs to be carefully considered before building wind farms all over the country.
Therefore wind energy in South Africa should be the ideal solution to producing renewable power, as opposed to burning fossil fuels, or is it?
The Department Of Energy in South Africa set a target of 17 800GWh to be produced from renewable energy sources, such as wind farms, by 2030.
To achieve this target a number of smaller wind farms have already been successfully established in South Africa with several large wind energy projects being developed.
There is, however, a school of thought that says producing energy from wind is not cost effective or efficient and, to add insult to injury, may also cause harm to the environment.
Well this isn’t good news for the proponents of wind power as an alternative energy source, but let’s see if this is really the case.
What Costs Are Involved in Wind Energy?
Whilst wind is a free resource (or fuel) & if it’s power can be harnessed successfully it is a great clean energy source, however there are certain costs associated with producing the power for consumption that need to be considered before rushing into the purchase or manufacture of your own wind turbine.
The inconsistent nature of wind power means that additional power sources such as generators or batteries need to be used to ensure a constant supply of power.
Therefore the almost continual running of generators, for example, not only adds to the emissions but is also an additional cost.
Although it must be noted that the above would vary depending on the amount of wind experienced in one area compared to another – areas that are always windy won’t be affected as much.
Some of the costs of generating power from the wind are as follows;
- Capital Costs – These are the costs that would be incurred in the purchase or manufacturing of the actual wind turbine
- Operating Costs – Once the turbine is operational you will need to consider running costs such as fuel, maintenance & the cost of personnel to take care of it.
- Finance Costs – The cost of borrowing the capital to invest in the project will need to be accounted for.
- Rental Costs – If land needs to be rented on which the turbine will be constructed then this will be an additional cost to be taken into account.
On the positive side, depending on where you live, you may be entitled to significant rebates for using clean energy & reducing your dependence on the grid.
Is Wind Energy a Good Alternative to Conventional Power?
It is true that the cost of wind turbines & using wind energy is coming down every year, however it will probably cost any household that is already connected to the grid & using conventional power.
The fact is that it will almost always be less cost effective to generate your own power from wind energy than it will be to just pay for it from the national grid.
For instance the cost of batteries alone could easily cost more than the amount you would’ve paid for power from the grid.
So while wind is a free fuel that can be used as a clean energy source it is not clearly a cost effective solution as an alternative energy source.
It is recommended that you do your research before buying into a wind energy program – the marketing of wind power systems could be filled with hype & unrealistic cost predictions.
Combining Wind Energy with the installation of Solar Panels has been found to be an effective solution to the above