Windustry's Wind Project Calculator

-Designed by Alice Orrell, Alice Orrell Consulting, and Brian Antonich, Windustry, for the Community Wind Toolbox, April 2007.

The Wind Project Calculator was developed to assist in performing cash flow modeling for community wind projects. You will need to enter specific information about the type of turbine you are considering, the estimated annual average wind speed, information about electricity use and electric rates, and information about financing and income taxes. The program will estimate the cash flows for investing in a wind turbine and the rate of return on the cash investments.

Use this calculator in conjunction with software from the Idaho National Laboratory. The software from Idaho National Laboratory is designed to combine validated wind resource data with wind turbine power curves to calculate average wind speed, estimated annual energy production, and capacity factor. Also included with the software is a program to help you create a wind rose for your site. The software is availablel at www.inl.gov/wind/software/

Other financial calculator tools:

• National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Wind Energy Finance Application (You'll need to set up a username and password, but there's no charge.)
• Danish Wind Industry Association's Wind Energy Economics Calculator
• Windpowering America Wind Energy Payback Period Workbook: The Wind Energy Payback Workbook is a spreadsheet tool that can help to analyze the economics of a small wind energy system.
• Bergey Windpower Small Turbine Project Calculator
• Old Version of Windustry Wind Project Calculator, prepared for Windustry by Thomas A. Wind, updated by Wes Slaymaker in 2003.