T. Boone Pickens, Oil billionaire turned wind power developer, says “oil is too expensive. The answer my friends,” to quote Bob Dylan, “is Blowin’ in the wind.” The Pickens Plan talks more about how harnessing the winds can the meet our power needs and eliminate the need to import oil – and export hard currency and wealth. Pickens talks more about money and geopolitics and less about the environmental hazards of burning fossil fuels.  While he wants to burn natural gas (which I use to heat my house) he’s not building coal or nuclear power plants.

Pickens’ Mesa Power is building an $8 Billion 4 Gigawatt (GW) power plant in W. Texas – at $2 per watt. This compares favorably to the plan by Florida Power & Light (FPL) to spend $18 Billion to build a 3.0 GW facility at the Turkey Point plant near Miami. Cost – $6 per watt. The wind farm is 1/3 the cost of a nuclear power plant.

Pickens’ Mesa Power will complete phase 1 of the wind farm, a 1.0 GW facility, by 2010. At that rate the 4 MW will be complete by 2015, the first 3.0 GW by 2013. Mesa Power will also add transmission lines to connect the system to the electrical grid, at a cost of another $2 billion, or $0.50 per GW. According to the Wall St. Journal, FPL estimates their new nuclear facility may be completed in 2018 or 2020. The wind farm – which can be built in stages – can be built for 1/3 the cost and in about 40% of the time.

Solar is more expensive – the Atlantic County Municipal Authority’s 500 KW solar energy system cost about $3.25 Million – about $6.5 per watt. Slightly more than a comparable nuclear plant today , according to estimates based on the cost of the FPL plant. However, when you factor in the costs of fuel (which must be imported), security, regulation, waste management, and the external costs to the environment, solar, which has $0 fuel, $0 waste, and close to $0 maintenance, when you factor in that solar works where it’s needed – and therefore provides a level of security and emergency preparedness – you can only conclude that Pickens is right – wind is a key technology for the future. I would add solar, geothermal, marine current, and conservation.