Social costs of energy generation - how does wind compare?

Market introduction of new energy technologies based on renewable energy sources as wind energy systems depends on the market price of the energy supplied by the new technologies. Since the competing conventional energy technologies are able to pass on to society a substantial part of their costs (external or social), renewable energy sources, which do so to a far lesser extent, are put at a systematic disadvantage. The objective of this paper is to derive the difference in the social costs of wind energy and conventional electricity generation. The net social costs of conventional electricity as compared to wind energy are estimated to be at least in the order of 0.06 to 0.12 DM/kWh (0.03 to 0.06 US Dollar). With wind energy electricity costs in the FRG at between 0.2 and 0.3 DM/kWh (0.10 - 0.15 US Dollar) the inclusion of social costs has a considerable effect on cost-effectiveness and market penetration of wind energy technology.