IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v145y2017i2d10.1007_s10551-015-2837-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does an Embedded Wind Turbine Reduce a Company’s Electricity Bill? Case Study of a 300 kW Wind Turbine in Ireland

Author

Listed:
  • Tony Kealy

    (Dublin Institute of Technology)

Abstract

In recent years, a growing number of small-to-medium-enterprises are embracing wind turbine projects not only as part of their cost reduction strategy but also to actively play their part in the global fight against climate change. However, it would appear there are currently limited empirical studies carried out in this emerging industry. This case study analyses the cost effectiveness of one such wind turbine initiative by a company in the Republic of Ireland, who invested in a 300 kW embedded wind turbine project at the end of 2013. The research methodology which is primarily a case study analysis included comparing historical electricity utility bills which allowed the 2013 quantity of electrical energy units imported, i.e. the year before the turbine was installed to be compared with the 2014 value, i.e. the year after the turbine was installed. Numerous site visits were undertaken over a four-year period, during which electric meter readings were recorded and stored. The findings of this piece of research indicate that the installation of the embedded wind turbine had minimal positive effect on the annual electricity costs for the company. Indeed the turbine appears to have significant negative effects such as a need for an increased maximum import capacity and also it appeared to contribute to a deteriorating utility power factor. While the aesthetic nature of the on-site turbine seemed to create a positive image of the company, it would appear that caution should be exercised when business owners select alternative energy providers who claim to be experts in the energy field but may have limited knowledge in this area of wind energy, which as of yet has minimal robust research into all aspects of its benefits/attributes.

Suggested Citation

  • Tony Kealy, 2017. "Does an Embedded Wind Turbine Reduce a Company’s Electricity Bill? Case Study of a 300 kW Wind Turbine in Ireland," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 145(2), pages 417-428, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:145:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-015-2837-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2837-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-015-2837-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-015-2837-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Markus Milne & Rob Gray, 2013. "W(h)ither Ecology? The Triple Bottom Line, the Global Reporting Initiative, and Corporate Sustainability Reporting," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(1), pages 13-29, November.
    2. Cristina Besio & Andrea Pronzini, 2014. "Morality, Ethics, and Values Outside and Inside Organizations: An Example of the Discourse on Climate Change," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 119(3), pages 287-300, February.
    3. Lidewij Van Der Ploeg & Frank Vanclay, 2013. "Credible Claim Or Corporate Spin?: A Checklist To Evaluate Corporate Sustainability Reports," Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management (JEAPM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 15(03), pages 1-21.
    4. Chiriac Catalin & Rusu Nicoleta, 2011. "International Biomass Trade And Sustainable Development: An Overview," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(2), pages 47-54, December.
    5. Shafiee, Shahriar & Topal, Erkan, 2009. "When will fossil fuel reserves be diminished?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 181-189, January.
    6. Anders Aspling, 2013. "Business, Management Education, and Leadership for the Common Good," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Gordon M. Hardy & Daniel L. Everett (ed.), Shaping the Future of Business Education, chapter 3, pages 40-58, Palgrave Macmillan.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ali Mubarak Al-Qahtani, 2023. "A Comprehensive Review in Microwave Pyrolysis of Biomass, Syngas Production and Utilisation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-16, September.
    2. Fábio Albuquerque & Ana Isabel Dias & Alexandra Domingos, 2023. "The Students’ Intrinsic Motivation for Learning Non-Financial Information Matters from Their Self-Identification as Global Citizens," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-19, May.
    3. Jen-Yu Lee & Tien-Thinh Nguyen & Hong-Giang Nguyen & Jen-Yao Lee, 2022. "Towards Predictive Crude Oil Purchase: A Case Study in the USA and Europe," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-15, May.
    4. Steve Newbold & Charles Griffiths & Christopher C. Moore & Ann Wolverton & Elizabeth Kopits, 2010. "The "Social Cost of Carbon" Made Simple," NCEE Working Paper Series 201007, National Center for Environmental Economics, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, revised Aug 2010.
    5. Merriam Haffar & Cory Searcy, 2018. "Target‐setting for ecological resilience: Are companies setting environmental sustainability targets in line with planetary thresholds?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(7), pages 1079-1092, November.
    6. Yassir El Karkri & Alexis B. Rey-Boué & Hassan El Moussaoui & Johannes Stöckl & Thomas I. Strasser, 2019. "Improved Control of Grid-connected DFIG-based Wind Turbine using Proportional-Resonant Regulators during Unbalanced Grid," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-21, October.
    7. Bodisco, Timothy & Brown, Richard J., 2013. "Inter-cycle variability of in-cylinder pressure parameters in an ethanol fumigated common rail diesel engine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 55-65.
    8. Francesco Badia & Grazia Dicuonzo & Saverio Petruzzelli & Vittorio Dell’Atti, 2019. "Integrated reporting in action: mobilizing intellectual capital to improve management and governance practices," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 23(2), pages 299-320, June.
    9. Ali Uyar & Simone Pizzi & Fabio Caputo & Cemil Kuzey & Abdullah S. Karaman, 2022. "Do shareholders reward or punish risky firms due to CSR reporting and assurance?," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(5), pages 1596-1620, July.
    10. Leong, Jun Xing & Daud, Wan Ramli Wan & Ghasemi, Mostafa & Liew, Kien Ben & Ismail, Manal, 2013. "Ion exchange membranes as separators in microbial fuel cells for bioenergy conversion: A comprehensive review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 575-587.
    11. Belen Moreno Santamaria & Fernando del Ama Gonzalo & Benito Lauret Aguirregabiria & Juan A. Hernandez Ramos, 2020. "Experimental Validation of Water Flow Glazing: Transient Response in Real Test Rooms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-24, July.
    12. Johannes Karlsson & Anders Grauers, 2023. "Agent-Based Investigation of Charger Queues and Utilization of Public Chargers for Electric Long-Haul Trucks," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-25, June.
    13. María Luisa Pajuelo Moreno & Teresa Duarte-Atoche, 2019. "Relationship between Sustainable Disclosure and Performance—An Extension of Ullmann’s Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-33, August.
    14. Howard, Mickey & Böhm, Steffen & Eatherley, Dan, 2022. "Systems resilience and SME multilevel challenges: A place-based conceptualization of the circular economy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 757-768.
    15. Tregidga, Helen & Laine, Matias, 2022. "On crisis and emergency: Is it time to rethink long-term environmental accounting?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    16. Mia Kaspersen & Thomas Riise Johansen, 2016. "Changing Social and Environmental Reporting Systems," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(4), pages 731-749, June.
    17. Anselm Schneider, 2015. "Reflexivity in Sustainability Accounting and Management: Transcending the Economic Focus of Corporate Sustainability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(3), pages 525-536, March.
    18. Nicolas Garcia‐Torea & Belen Fernandez‐Feijoo & Marta De La Cuesta, 2020. "CSR reporting communication: Defective reporting models or misapplication?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 952-968, March.
    19. Bellekom, Sandra & Benders, René & Pelgröm, Steef & Moll, Henk, 2012. "Electric cars and wind energy: Two problems, one solution? A study to combine wind energy and electric cars in 2020 in The Netherlands," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 859-866.
    20. Mohammadzadeh Bina, Saeid & Jalilinasrabady, Saeid & Fujii, Hikari & Pambudi, Nugroho Agung, 2018. "Classification of geothermal resources in Indonesia by applying exergy concept," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 499-506.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:145:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-015-2837-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.