I was sitting in APes today and we just began studying alternative fuel sources. We were going through some of the pros and cons of each and when we came to wind power the only real drawback was that it takes alot of land. I wass wondering if they could combine solar power and wind power in the same area. For example, we usually put wind farms in arid areas where nothing is around. Now wouldnt that be a perfect place for solar panelss since there is nothing blocking the sunlight in the arid areas. Could they put solar panels on the wind turbines or combine a solar power tower to the wind turbines. FYI, the power tower is when you have a bunch of mirrors reflect to a high tower. Any thoughts?
2007-01-29 12:05:09 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Environment
One could do that. But solar power, in the form in which it is at least close to economical, does not require a lot of land. You can get enough sun power to run a house just by cells on part of the roof. But the economics suck, unless you can get a fat subsidy. A friend has such a plant; it cost $13,000, and produces $300 of electricity a year. It requires little math to see that the money would have been better off in a savings account were there not subsidies which picked up 2/3 of the cost.
2007-01-29 12:13:29 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
My guess is that yea, of course this could be done.
Doing it right though, would certainly be a great engineering feat. You'd have to work out a way for the solar panels and wind turbines to track and harvest wind and suns energy without getting in each others way. Since the sun and wind are both dyanamic forces that change, you'd have to take into account how they change angles during the season as well.
2007-01-29 16:02:30 · answer #2 · answered by rubbawubba 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In theory, I guess it would work out. However, would you need to shut down the whole field if routine maintenance was needed? If the panels needed to be check, I would assume for safety the wind turbines would have to be stopped. That would be a whole field down at one time.
2007-01-29 12:15:13 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Homemade Solar Power Videos : http://Solar.eudko.com/?WbM
2017-04-01 01:32:45 · answer #4 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why not take hydrogen from water? Cheap, clean, renewable, and almost anyone could do it for a very small investment. Food for thought.
2007-02-02 05:29:54 · answer #5 · answered by Dorothy and Toto 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋