Building Integrated Power Generation  »  Building mounted/integrated and Urban Wind Turbines (BUWT)

Levelized Cost Of Electricity (LCOE) gives an estimate of the cost effectiveness of BUWT system over a period of time compared to other generation technologies. Key factors that affect the payback time are the prevailing energy utility charges, the cost of BUWT technology available and the capacity factor (determines energy generation at normalized full capacity hours). A typical BUWT installation will have a lifetime of approximately 20-25 years although at a reduced efficiency over the years.

A quick and rough LCOE analysis of building integrated BUWT systems has been performed from the data based on IRENA and Photon, 2011, based on electricity prices from open source data using a calculator tool developed by NREL. This gives an impression of cost effectiveness of BUWT systems in those particular countries (for a range of installation costs), for some key parameters.

It can be observed from the above table that lower first investment costs and higher prevailing utility rates only result in the promotion of BUWT system installations.

Besides, LCOE, feed in tariffs also play an important role in analysing the cost benefit analysis of a PV system. Since all the electricity produced cannot be always used and stored, surplus energy at peak generating times must be supplied back into the grid. The electricity that is supplied back is bought by the grid at a fixed price called Feed in Tariff (Fit). A feed in tariff matching or exceeding the prevailing utility rate acts a further incentive to install BUWT generation systems.

The following table shows FiT for building integrated BUWT installations and prevailing utility price in few countries (subject to contracts, typically for 20 years, data ca 2010 and 2011).