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IEA Wind Task 26: The Past and Future Cost of Wind Energy / Eric Lantz, Ryan Wiser &#38; Maureen Hand. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, may 2012, 137 p. (Technical Report NREL/TP-6A20-53510)http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/53510.pdfExecutive Summary:Over the past 30 years, wind power has become a mainstream source of electricity generation around the world. However, the future of wind power will depend a great deal on the ability of the industry to continue to achieve cost of energy reductions. This summary report, developed as part of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Wind Implementing Agreement Task 26, The Cost of Wind Energy, provides a review of historical costs, evaluates near-term market trends, reviews the methods used to estimate long-term cost trajectories, and summarizes the range of costs projected for onshore wind energy across an array of forward-looking studies and scenarios. It also highlights high-level market variables that have influenced wind energy costs in the past and are expected to do so into the future... (© NREL)&#160;--&#62; A ce propos :Wind’s Mid-life Crisis / Fereidoon Sioshansi, EU energy policy blog, 17/07/2012http://www.energypolicyblog.com/2012/07/17/winds-mid-life-crisis/As new technologies go, wind has enjoyed 3 decades of continuous innovation, performance and reliability improvements and falling costs – benefits of economies of scale, technological advancements and learning by doing. The law of diminishing marginal returns, however, appears to have gotten in the way of further cost reductions. That appears to be the underlying message from a new report, The Past and Future Cost of Wind Energy, with contributions of experts at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and a number of European collaborators...