Why wind has got so cheap.

Some more snippets from the Windlab Prospectus.

The first modern wind turbine built, in Denmark in 1978, had a capacity factor of just 7%.

Just to show how big wind turbines are.  This is one blade of the rotor.  Pic looks as if it was taken in Queensland.  Note solar panels on the roof of the small business on the right.

Soft denialists note: the wholesale price of electricity is determined by the most expensive bidder/generation source, and that is NOT renewables.  It is gas.  Gas in Oz is much more expensive than in the USA.  Gas is vulnerable to falling costs of storage.  When the costs of dispatchable electricity (from batteries or molten salt storage from CSP) fall below the costs of gas peaking plants, they will be favoured over gas in the bidding "stack".

This might appear to be of interest to Australia only.  But the technological shifts are global.  The cost declines in wind are global.  The gradual undercutting of coal is a global phenomenon.  What is different in different parts of the world is the applicable rate of interest/discount rate/cost of finance and the cost of connections to the grid.