The falling cost of wind energy may be an old story by now, with massive farms of turbines operating across the world and already competing with the most expensive gas-fired electricity, but costs could fall an additional 20-30 per cent in the next three years, a Siemens executive said today.
René Umlauft, the chief executive for renewable energy at Siemens, the global turbine manufacturer, told a
in Abu Dhabi that the costs of installing each megawatt of wind capacity could fall to between €700 and €800 million per megawatt, compared to €1 million today.
Automated factories similar to modern car plants "are really driving the cost down", he said.
"In 2004, 2005, everybody was thinking of renewables as some kind of niche," he said. "They are expanding faster than expected."
Mr Umlauft said the cost of each megawatt had already fallen from €3 million in recent years.
