September 19, 2005

Wind turbines at the North Sea; a social cost benefit analysis

Sterke fasering en stringent internationaal klimaatbeleid essentieel voor maatschappelijk rendement van windenergie op zee

Press release
Voor de aanleg van circa 30 windparken op de Noordzee met een totaalvermogen van 6000 Megawatt in 2020, waarmee ongeveer 15% van de verwachte elektriciteitsconsumptie in Nederland op dat moment kan worden opgewekt, gaan in alle onderzochte varianten de maatschappelijke kosten uit boven de baten.

We are sorry, unfortunately there is no English translation of this page.

Contacts

The analysis reveals that such an investment will only increase welfare if it is done gradually and combined with strict climate policy measures. Building 6000 MW of wind parks at the North Sea by 2020 is economically unviable in all scenarios, variants and sensitivity analyses performed in this study. In a version with more gradual investments in the Strong Europe scenario (with strict climate policy), the balance will be slightly negative. If more favourable assumptions are used on cost decreases over time, higher fuel prices, higher emission prices or a lower discount factor, this would turn the balance to slightly positive. World oil-price developments in the coming decades are not expected to render wind energy economically viable in the absence of climate policy.

This publication is in Dutch.

Authors

H. de Vries
Mark Lijesen
A. Seebregts

Read more about