Consumer Rip Off For Wind Energy
From the Submitted Links:
Otter Tail Power Co. wants to increase a special charge to electric customers that helps pay for its wind energy projects.
The charge now adds $1.45 to the electric bill of an Otter Tail residential customer who uses 750 kilowatt-hours of power each month.
Otter Tail is asking North Dakota’s Public Service Commission to increase the charge, starting Jan. 1. It would raise the payment from $1.45 to $3.83 monthly.
I hope this disabuses any idea that wind power is somehow free. It costs money to put those windmills up and it costs even more to run power lines to join the net.
I think this gives us some insight on how much wind power does cost. Let’s assume that Ottertail is going to supply 15% of their power from windpower. 15% of 750 kilowatt-hours is 112.5 kilowatt-hours. The proposed charge of $3.83 divided by that comes to 3.4 cents. In addition to that the power companies receives a subsidy of 1.5 cents from the federal government which we do actually pay, somehow or another. That comes to a nickel over and above the regular cost of generating electricity.
I don’t know what it costs Ottertail to generate electricty but I do know that Minnkota power in North Dakota can generate electricity for 2 cents a kilowatt hour. That would mean that we’re paying up to three and an half times for wind energy than we are for conventional coal fired electricity.
Why are we doing this. How are we going to compete in the world wide market when we’re out to make a vital component of every business that much more expensive.
