How come they do not put solar panels on windmills to generate even more power?

Answer 1

My husband works on the commercial wind turbines.

First, wind turbines are where wind it. That does not mean they are always where there is enough sun to be worth adding solar (solar power cost about 7 times what wind power does).

Perhaps the most important factor however is heat. Ever notice all the wind turbines are bright white? They are that color for a reason. To reflect as much of the solar raditaion AWAY from the turbines as possible.

Turbines are filled with electrical equipment, including computers. Computers simply do not function well in heat. The wind turbines currently can get up to 110 degreees Farenhite inside them at times in the summer.

They start having trouble then, as equipment begins to malfunction. Now imagine you are the man that has to go work on the wind turbine and get it working again. You have to climb up a 300 foot strait up (no elivator) to fix it....and it's 110 degrees inside.

Putting solar panels on the wind turbines would simply make it too hot inside them for either the electronics to function, and it would mean heat stroke for a human. Humans would simply not be able to go inside the turbines.

There are other problems as well. That would add even more weight to the wind turbines, as well as adding another place the wind could "catch" on the turbines, and rip things off, or damage them in some way.

With each blade of the turbine costing 300K, you simply do not want something ripping off the turbine, smashing into them and damaging them. The cost of renting a crane to come out and put a new blade on the wind turbine is staggering.

Yet another factor is wind turbines are often in areas that have snow, and hail. Both of which can be quiet damaging to solar panels.

Long and short of it is, it's simply not cost effective.

~Garnet
Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 2

Solar panels have to point at the Sun, windmills have to point into the wind. Solar panels are heavy, delicate and square. Windmills must have light, strong, smoothly curved blades. You might as well say put them on your hat or on a tree or any other random place. What possible gain is there to putting them ON a windmill? It isn't as if the world is so full of solar panels already that the only place left to put them is on a windmill! Better to put the solar panels on your roof or on the empty ground under the windmill.

Answer 3

They are already being mixed mached. But maybe not in the way you are thinking.

People are setting up the windmill with a side of pole mount down from the rotor and mounting solar modules on them. They aswell build frames at the bottom of the windmill and put solar arries on them.

Thin film solar cells on the blades is a thought but the wind don't always blow out of the south east in the morning, south at noon and south west in the after noon. Plus it would be fairly hard trying to keep the contacts working being the blade is turning 90 % of the time and would wareout pretty quick and mean you have to take the pole down.

Answer 4

Because you can do a better job of generating solar power if you point the panels at the Sun more precisely than putting them on spinning blades that move around to point into the wind.

Answer 5

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