Wind Turbines: Not in Toronto Please (Nicholas Montgomery)

I'm all for new clean energy sources to reduce our carbon footprint, but we have to look at the economics and the price we pay to reduce our carbon footprint. In Toronto we have one very prominently placed windmill near the CNE and Lake Ontario. Placed as no more than a political statement on how Toronto is tackling climate change, I do not see a use for this turbine. I have a huge problem with this wind turbine and think it should be abandoned. Let's look at the numbers and see why. It generated $58,439 in revenue in 2010, but how much does it cost to have it running year after year?

• $1.8 Million initial cost in December 2002
• $18 291 of maintenance costs in 2010 (This is ignoring interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization)

At this rate it will take approximately another ~35.84 years for this windmill to break even economically. However a faulty bearing in one of the turbines has racked up another $200 000 in repair costs. To do the job of fixing one bearing weighing 1.7 tonnes, encased 65 meters above the ground a 500 ton crane is needed. Not any easy task by any means. To the repair even more difficult, all three turbine blades need to first be removed, which have a combined weight of 17 tonnes. These repair costs add another 5 years, on top of 35 years for this turbine to break even. But we can't dismiss wind turbines completely. After all we are helping out the environment. Wait, are we really?



The rare metal "Neodymium" might not be in your vocabulary, but it is used to construct super strong magnets used to make everything from windmills to making the Toyota Prius more efficient. China produces 95-97% of the world's rare metals. Other rare earth metals used in wind turbines include praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium. China has even limited exports of certain rare metals to preserve the environment and conserve such limited metals.

 

You could call the rare mineral extraction wind's "dirty secret", something we don't see the affect of thousands of kilometres away. The Global Wind Energy Council predicts to generate 250 GW (Canada uses 460.1 GW a year) from wind energy we will need 167,000 tonnes of rare metals. However, China only produced 150,000 tonnes of rare earth metals in 2009. What do I propose instead? I don't really know, but we really need to consider all factors when choosing so called "clean" energy sources.

[Image via jp1958]