Will it make wind energy net positive? Search for photos of the amount of concrete and rebar needed to install a tower. Coupled with manufacturing, transport, maintenance, and end-of-life, they are always net negative.
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Those who have studied it found that wind is around 4-20. Solar PV is something like 8-30. A Saudi oil well is in the 40's IIRC, and a fracking well is in the low single digits. In the US, we don't have saudi oil wells (and some would say the saudi's haven't had a proper saudi oil well since the early 2000's...), so given the options left on the table and stopping short of some materials breakthroughs that need to happen to make thorium work, wind is pretty competitive relative to what we have left here at the bottom of the metaphorical energy barrel.
Now, if we're just trying to be wowed by looking at construction photos, we can also look at photos of the miles of pipework needed in the acres of an oil refinery, but that's not really going to tell us anything about the actual numbers either...
Summary: Wind power contributes significantly to scenarios where EROI remains above the "net energy cliff" (typically around 10). While exact EROI values for wind alone aren’t isolated in the paper, the system-level EROI for high-renewable scenarios (including wind) ranges from 10 to over 20, depending on factors like transition speed and enabling technologies (e.g., storage or grid upgrades). Wind’s individual EROI is implied to be high and competitive, aligning with earlier studies showing operational wind EROI values of 19-30+.
However compared to gas turbines, wind is cheaper. How can I assert this? because in the UK electricity prices are benchmarked against gas. (for various reasons)
Even offshore wind is cheap.
In the US its probably even cheaper as roads are bigger and straighter, and planning is not nearly as onerous.