ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

There currently is a federal tax credit of 1.7 cents per kWh of wind generated electricity. President Bush extended this credit until December 2003. Unfortunately, if Middlebury College did set up two wind turbines, it would be unlikely to have them completed by this date. Therefore the tax credit is not taken into account for this analysis. However, due to tax credits for wind generated energy, the actual cost per kWh may be even lower than expected.

It makes economic sense for the Middlebury College Snow Bowl to look further into installation of two NW 100/19 wind turbines. Although this Cost/Benefit analysis is just a rough estimate of the potential costs, it shows that the feasibility of wind power installation is not limited by economic factors. Even if the cost of electricity would increase slightly, wind power could be seen as an important investment for the college. Investment in wind power contains its high educational value, promotional value, and lack of displaced externalities. These values may be hard to quantify, but are part of the larger socioeconomic picture. Middlebury could possibly negotiate for a discounted capital cost from the contractor, Northern Power Systems in this example, because of the high visibility of this project.