Wind generation is *stupendously* expensive
This is because the biggest wind plant can only generate around 2MW at most - that's their perfect windy day. They shut down if there's too much wind to try to avoid damage, and they obviously produce less output if there is less wind than the design speed.
(Source: BWEA, who lobby for them to be built.)
Interestingly, BWEA also say that the 'energy payback' time (how long it takes to generate the amount of energy used to make the unit), is 6 to 8 months for wind - but 6 months for coal or nuclear.
So even *they* think that coal and nuclear are cheaper.
Each wind turbine/generator set has more moving parts than the turbine/generator set used by a steam-powered turbine*. The frequency of maintenance is therefore likely to be much higher for a wind turbine, although the cost of parts is less as they're smaller.
The 'clean coal' plant E:ON want to build at Kingsnorth would have two turbine sets, producing a total of 1600MW *at any time required*.
- That's equivalent to over 800 wind turbines all running at maximum output, or 40 'normal-sized' wind farms.
Big plant is almost always cheaper to run than an equivalent number of small plants. It's called economy of scale - look it up.
*Wind turbines have a gearbox, yaw and blade pitch mechanism, which steam turbines do not. In a steam turbine the stresses on the turbine are completely predictable, while those on a wind turbine are not.
Show me a set of wind farms that will *always* have at least 40 of them at maximum output? You can't.
Wind farms are a dead end, just like electric cars. They have a place, but that place is coupled with pumped-storage to cover peaks in demand until the 'big iron' catches up.
The Big Iron has to be controllable and run 24/7, so can only be fired (coal/oil/gas/wood whatever), nuclear or geothermal. Anyone who says otherwise is living in la-la-land or doesn't think we need electricity.
We don't have enough geothermal available in the UK unless you dig a mohole, so the only CO2-friendly option we have is nuclear.