You say that as though it's a lot. And it sort of is a lot for an initial investment. But the cost of keeping a wind farm running is a lot lower than the cost

You say that as though it's a lot. And it sort of is a lot for an initial investment. But the cost of keeping a wind farm running is a lot lower than the cost of keeping fuel consuming power plants running. This wikipedia page has a bunch of estimates of overall cost per Megawatt Hour that show wind being a slightly cheaper source of energy than conventional coal plants, and considerably cheaper than more advanced coal plants. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_electricity_by_source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_electricity_by_source