I understand there is installation, maintenance and servicing costs, but shouldn’t the free power from the sun, wind and tidal eventually pay this off and start providing free power?
In: Engineering
“Eventually” is almost always some distant point 25-40 years in the future, as determined by the life of the plant – so over this 25-40 period, a loan was taken out to pay for the design, procurement, construction, installation, maintenance and decomissioning of the plant.
To pay off the loan (and make profit for the company running the plant, if not run by the state), the power generated by that plant is sold instead of given out freely.
We don’t have many renewable plants that are 25 years old and paid off already, and many of the older plants are constantly being upgraded with significantly more efficient solar panels, inverters and better maintenance practices which still make economic sense, so that then adds additional loans to be paid off.
Latest Answers