Georgia´s only (USAID funded) wind turbine produces energy for two families

The government of Georgia is to be congratulated for its realistic approach to wind energy:

“We can’t subsidy wind energy as we have a lot more important problems,” said Mariam Valishvili, First Deputy of the Minister of Energy. “The cost of building one megawatt wind firm is 1 million EUR, which is quite costly. This will increase the net price of energy and according to our calculations the net price of one KWh of energy is 16 cents. At the same time the areas with good wind energy potential are places where infrastructure isn’t developed at all. Constructing roads and transmission lines would take up almost half of the budget. For those reasons it isn’t worth starting and therefore we prefer to build hydro energy stations.”

No wonder that the Georgians are sceptical with regard to wind energy; The country´s only wind turbine, funded by USAID, is certainly not a huge success: 

“There is currently only one wind turbine in the village Skra. The project was funded by USAID. The prime cost of the turbine is about 25,000 USD. It produces only 22,000 KWh energy per year, which is enough for two families,” Valishvili said.