Plus, you get power when the wind blows or the sun shines -- and none when they don't. Given the mean and standard deviation of cash flows, you can figure the proper debt to equity mix. But how well does the industry support that information for a particular project? Natural gas plants have very stable output so are more easily levered up. In a capital intensive industry, that's a very serious financing disadvantage.
This financing problem reflects a real economic problem. Risk -- cash flow variability -- is a real economic quantity. Failure to manage it causes real economic hardship and loss. If 50% of the power supply is wind, and it's down due to weather, someone on the grid is going down. Economically, the financing problem signals the importance of addressing that contingency. So this isn't just bankers being mean.
Actually with wind you also don't get power when the wind blows too hard, meaning you're at risk of being in a blackout for a lot of hurricane and tornado season.
What I don't understand is that these areas they refer to as natural wind resources are incidentally the areas that have had the highest instances of major tornadoes and hurricanes. I'm sorry, but erecting a structure purposefully designed to maximize wind drag in a storm zone is pretty stupid.
Nuclear power is the only viable method to go carbon-neutral before we hit the next century. It's also not likely to colossally fuck up our environment (see: Weather response to management of a large wind turbine array.), IE warning that it could shift the movement of cyclones in the atlantic.
Are you taking into account the extensive carbon emissions that come from mining fuel, transport, containment, etc. for nuclear power? As the supply of uranium and quality uranium decreases, the emissions will only get higher.
This financing problem reflects a real economic problem. Risk -- cash flow variability -- is a real economic quantity. Failure to manage it causes real economic hardship and loss. If 50% of the power supply is wind, and it's down due to weather, someone on the grid is going down. Economically, the financing problem signals the importance of addressing that contingency. So this isn't just bankers being mean.