Dawson Public Power District buys their power from Nebraska Public Power District and then sells it to you. As a distribution entity in Nebraska, Dawson PPD appreciates NPPDs diligence at their strategic plan for putting wind into the overall power mix. NPPD has a balanced goal that their generation mix will produce 10% of the energy needed in Nebraska from new renewable resources by 2020. This type of balanced adoption ensures that base load generation is never left out of the picture. We didn't know until recently but approximately 70% of Nebraskans view wind as the cheapest form of energy. Wind is a "free" resource but it is not dispatch-able (we can't command or control its input/output nor can we store it).
Technically wind is NOT free because the wind generator has to be sited, transported, constructed, and tied into the transmission system – and then maintained. The cost of the commercial wind turbines vary from $1 to $2 million per MW of nameplate capacity installed. The same turbines 2 MW in size cost roughly $2.8 million installed capacity. These turbines undergo significant economies scale. Smaller farm or residential scale turbines cost less but they are more expensive when per kilowatt of energy producing capacity is applied on the rates.
Taking wind down a notch…
A typical 10 kilowatt HOME wind turbine system will cost $25,000 - $35,000 to install which may or may not include interconnection costs. Depending on the turbine's location and wind availability it may produce around 10,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year. Such a turbine has a blade diameter of about 20-25 feet and needs to sit on a tower about 100 feet tall. Homes sitting on a one-acre parcel could probably accommodate such a turbine, depending on local zoning restrictions.
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