Costly Broken Wind Turbines Give College Whopping Negative 99.14% Return On Investment
. . . funded by a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. Only government can find ways to create such shockingly bad investment returns. Even the Steadman Funds of yesteryear (Deadman Funds, in the parlance), never plumbed these depths in such a short period of time. "The college estimates it would take another $100,000 in repairs to make the turbines function again after one of them was struck by lightning and likely suffered electrical damage last summer. School officials’ original estimates found the turbine would save it $44,000 in electricity annually, far more than the $8,500 they actually generated. Under the original optimistic scenario, the turbines would have to last for 22.5 years just to recoup the costs, not accounting for inflation. If viewed as an investment, the turbines had a return of negative 99.14 percent. “While they have been an excellent teaching tool for students, they have only generated $8,500 in power in their lifetime,” she said. “One of the reasons for the lower than expected energy power is that the turbines often need to be repaired. They are not a good teaching tool if they are not working.'" Look Princess, they while they were not working these things were the best teaching tool ever invented. Success provides a few learning points, but abject failure of this magnitude offers myriad teaching points. Frankly, everything about this project point to the fact that college administrators are not ready to manage the people or money they are required to manage. This was not an investment, but a serious, unconscionable waste of student money. It should be pink slips all around, but . . . wait for it . . . Have the administrators learned from the experience? In a word, NO! "Lake Land plans to replace the two failed turbines with a solar power system paid for by a government grant. “[T]he photovoltaic panels are expected to save the college between $50,000 and $60,000 this year,”Allee told the DCNF." The gambler who cannot win, doubles down! Brilliant. Why limit the poppycock ROI estimates to $60,000, go for the Moon! $600,000, or $6,000,000, or maybe the ROI will be infinite! Religion always trumps reason, and here the students pay, not the administrators, so there is no reason to treat this as anything other than a lark.
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