Hepburn Wind’s maintenance team applying scheduled hugs.

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Wind power outfits still make wild claims about these things running on the smell of an oily rag and lasting for 25 years or more, needing little more than a hug from time to time. However, the operations and maintenance cost of these things is around $25 per MWh – hardly the zero marginal cost claimed by wind cultists (see our post here).

Gearbox, bearing, generator and blade failures are common features of wind turbine operation; and the cost of replacing and repairing these things has the potential to wipe out profits and shareholder value in a veritable heartbeat, just ask Australia’s most notorious wind power outfit, Infigen (see our post here).

The truth is that wind turbines are lucky to have an economic life of anything more than 10 years (see our post here).

Proof of that fact…