There were two wind industry representatives (but not Monash University's Peter Freere, as you reported) who suggested that the quoted price of A$800,000 for this capacity was far too low. (The A$600,000 you reported was only for the non-installed turbine capacity.) For an installed capacity of 500 kW, however, A$800,000 translates to A$1600/kW and is significantly higher than what has already been achieved at the Tararua Wind Farm in New Zealand, which will have an installed cost of approximately A$1330/kW. This point was missed in your report.
Another point missed was that with the mean wind speeds available at the best Australian sites, the energy pay back and the cost of energy would be in the order of three months and A$0.06/kWh, respectively.
The main thrust of my presentation was that large, well engineered wind farms with good wind resources are becoming very competitive in this part of the world.
We regret the misrepresentations,-----Ed.
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