Wind Power Generation - Renewable Energy: Technology, Economics and Environment - page 340

of roughly 4.9 Mio. € (980 €/kW). If the systems would be installed offshore the
overall investment costs are significantly higher. According to current knowledge
for the 2.5 and 5.0 MW wind mill the costs would roughly double.
An analysis of the specific costs of the actual wind converter per m 2 of rotor
surface reveals that smaller converters yield better values than large converters.
The approximate values of 1.5 MW converters, for instance, amount to 350 €/m 2 ,
whereas the maximum specific costs of larger converters within the higher MW
range are increased to about 430 €/m 2 .
The above-mentioned specific investment costs are mainly list prices per indi-
vidual converter. For wind farms, however, usually many converters are sold un-
der the same contract. Under such framework conditions specific investment costs
are generally much lower due to discounts granted by manufacturers within the
scope of major projects. Experience shows that price reductions amount to 25 %
of the list prices.

Table 7.3 Mean investment and operation costs as well as power generation costs for the
reference wind turbines defined in Table 7.2
Capacity in kW 1,500 2,500 5,000

Investments
Wind energy converter
Grid connection
Miscellaneous

in k€
in k€
in k€

1,250
185
205

2,180
200
219

4,150
380
418

Total in k€ 1,640 2,599 4,948

Yearly costs a

in k€/a 95 151 295

Power generation costs

1,800 h/a in €/kWh 0.082 0.078 0.075

2,500 h/a in €/kWh 0.059 0.056 0.054

4,500 h/a in €/kWh 0.033 0.031 0.030

a operation, maintenance, insurance, miscellaneous

Additional investment expenses include grid connection, the foundation as well
as development and design costs (i.e. miscellaneous costs) and vary tremendously
with regard to project type (number and size of converters) and site conditions.
Usually, grid connection costs account for the major portion. They reach from 5 to
30 % of the converter costs, whereas foundation expenses amount to approxi-
mately 3 to 9 %, development fees to roughly 1 to 5 %, and engineering costs to
about 1.5 to 3 % of the converter costs. Miscellaneous expenses account for 5 to
8 % of the investment costs of a wind energy converter. Overall additional in-
vestment costs for onshore sites are between 16 to 52 % of the overall converter
costs. Wind parks of low capacity converters usually have considerably reduced
costs when compared to wind parks of much higher capacities. For very large
wind parks provided with numerous wind turbines (e.g. construction of a substa-
tion and coupling a higher voltage level) may incur in even higher specific costs
due to grid connection expenses.