The cost of the wind farm in Cyprus was at least €200,000,000 ..... Let's ignore any peripheral costs and taxpayer funded subsidies for the next 20 years
Population ..... Lets call it 800000
Power generated in optimum conditions ( rarely occur) - 82 MW
Soooo
For a capital cost of €250 per head Cyprus received .1KWH per head ( again ignoring the expensive subsidies)
Now let's think of an alternative
Let's take 50 million and build a 50 MW gas turbine based system which would always generate 50mw without wind
That leaves 150 million in the pot ... Close to 190 euro per head
Average household ( again conservatively) - 4 people = 760 euro per house
Provide this as a grant ,on a matched fund basis, towards the purchase of high efficiency electrical appliances.
Surely this could save more than .4 kwh per house ?
The Real world figures also show that per unit - electricity from gas is approx 30% cheaper than wind which ,although using a notionally free source of energy , actually rarely performs to specification and requires substantial subsidy.
So ...... Cyprus ends up with a reliable energy source , ideally suited to the prospective gas finds, lowers the price of its electricity ( helping key industries) and actually ends up using less power - less power used equals less C02 produced ..... Finally every household spends less on energy and has more cash in its collective pockets.
And our keo would probably be cooler in hyper efficient fridges
I know it's too late and the money has been spent , however, surely someone did the sums didn't they ?
