Page 312 - Fluid Power Engineering

278 Chapter Thirteen

Turbine Transaction Price (2008 $/kW) 1,600 Orders <100 MW
2,000
1,800
1,400
1,200
1,000
800
600
Orders from 100–300 MW
400
Orders >300 MW
200
Polynomial Trend Line
0
Jan-97 Jan-98 Jan-99 Jan-00 Jan-01 Jan-02 Jan-03 Jan-04 Jan-05 Jan-06 Jan-07 Jan-08 Jan-09
Announcement Date
FIGURE 13-4 Turbine prices in the United States over the past 11 years. Data
for 2008 is based on 58 wind projects totaling 21.1 GW of nameplate
capacity.

Cost of Turbine
Turbine is the most significant cost of a wind project. It may be as
high as 75%. The cost of turbines in international projects is seen
in Fig. 13-3 and cost in United States projects is in Fig. 13-4. The
cost of turbine is normally broken into various components: Wind
turbine, tower, transportation to site, limited warranty (normally, 2
years), supply of manufacturer recommended spares and consum-
ables, tool for use during installation, and supervision of installation
and commissioning. Most manufacturers include the price of spares,
consumable, and tools in the price of turbine. Towers are priced as
a separate line item in the total price of turbine, because of the cost
difference between different height towers. Turbine manufacturers
provide personnel to supervise the installation and commissioning
of turbines; note the developer performs the actual installation and
commissioning.
The NREL JEDI model splits the BOP costs based on material,
labor, and development/others. The details are in Table 13-1. An al-
ternate method of splitting the BOP cost is along disciplines: civil
works, electrical works, and development/others. The following sec-
tion groups the costs by discipline to illustrate the types of activities
performed in each discipline.

Cost of Foundation, Erection, Access Roads,
and Other Civil Works
Primary categories of costs in this section include: Civil engineering,
preparation of land, construction of foundation, concrete, steel, post-
tensioning systems, and rental and operation of cranes for erection
of tower and turbine. Other civil works included in this category
are: Fencing, administration building, substation building, building of