How hard and expensive would it be to use only solar, wind and water power sources?

Question

How hard and expensive would it be to use only solar, wind and water power sources?

Answer 1

Hi Pami.  In the UK, well solar, is out, I read an article on wind power and the maximum out put for a turbine wind machine would not light a light bulb, The only real source left is the water, it is possible that it might generate enough power for a small city, but how much it would actually cost to deliver is unknown.  Best wishes.  Peter

Answer 2

There are a number of Alternative Energy sites on the Internet that can give a better, clearer and more detailed answer than I can.

One of them is Troubled Times, and is probably as good a place as any to start.

http://www.zetatalk.com/thub00.htm

Yahoo are having some problems with the links, sorry, it might not work. Google Alternative Energy, or Troubled Times, and see how you go.

Have fun!

Answer 3

Extremely expensive and for some countries, due to environmental and geological factors, not even worth it. They don't produce enough power to provide electricity to so many people that are used to living with so many luxuries. With wind power for example, it needs to be windy all the time to provide power. You still need coal plants as a backup in case it's not windy.

Answer 4

Pami ,

I believe it would cost a ton of money or everyone would already have done it .When we all get our priorities right here on earth maybe everything will fall in the right places and things like this would be affordable to everyone and builders would only build homes this way but that's only in the perfect world unfortunately

Answer 5

which one would you use to keep a plane in the air??

Answer 6

I'm guess that you are talking about not also being grid tied for a back-up power source.

First, my husband and I currently live on a permaculture farm.  My husband works on the commercial wind turbines.  We plan to buy more land, and build our house 100% off grid.

Water power...can be virtually impossible to do in the U.S.A. (thank the environmentalist).  You cannot put a turbine in a stream, because it might kill a fish.  You cannot put a turbine in a stream, even if you screen off the fish, because it might disrupt their breeding, feeding, or impeed the fish somehow.

We live in Idaho, were there are LOTS of irregation cannals.  The cannals are filled with water only part of the year, and have no fish in them.  They are not habitat, only ways to carry water to crops for farmers.  Not allowed to put turbines in them either, because of the strict laws the environmentalist have gotten put in place.  

So all that water, that could be generating power as it flows to farmland to water the crops that feed us...well, your not allowed to tap that energy, and get a double use of the water (generating engergy, and watering crops).

In many areas it is even difficult to get a permit to build a bridge of any kind over a stream, creek, or river (thank the environmentalist).

Solar...has great potential in certain areas.  One also needs to decide on passive, or active solar.  Passive is just heating up water for the house.  Active solar stores the power in banks of batteries the homeowner can then tap.  

Wind turbines.  There are homeowner grade wind turbines that will generate enough electric to be useful to homeowners.  The homeowner may need more than one however.  You also need the land, and rights to be allowed to put the wind turbines on.  My husband has found none yet that he likes better than the Skystream 3.7.

http://www.skystreamenergy.com/skystream...

You can also store the energy your wind turbines generate in batteries.  The batteries can then be tapped during times of low/no wind, or peak household use times.  You can also grid tie your wind turbines, and not mess with batteries.  So lets say you have winds all night long, but your house is not using the power.  The power company is buying that power from you (at a greatly reduced rate, compaired to what they charge you), and then at your peak use times you are drawing not just on the power of your wind turbine, but also power from the power company.  It's nice because you have no batteries to mess with.  Drawback is, power outages still affect you.  Grid tie can also be done with active solar.

You can also have something called a Central Boiler (brand name).

http://www.centralboiler.com/

We will be installing one when we build our house.  Central Boilers can heat your home (some of your biggest power useage) via radiant heat floors.

I sugest the Central Boilers only for those people who have enough land to grow the trees needed to supply the wood for the Central Boiler.  I do not think every person who cannot grow the trees themselves should have one.  Wood IS a renewable resource, but wood smoke DOES pollute.  However the pollution caused by the use of a Central Boiler is MORE than offset if you have enough land and trees to grow your own fuel.

There is one exception I see to this (my personal opinion).  Some businesses generate a LOT of wood pallets.  Sometimes these pallets are not recycled, and the business owner has to pay to send them to landfills.  I'd rather see the business owner burn the pallets in a Central Boiler and generate the heat needs for their home and/or business, than to send them to landfills.

We will not be grid tied.  We live where wind is a very viable option for us.  Solar is a pretty good option too, although we have about three feet of snow right now...have to work out how to keep the solar panels clear.  We would also gladly include hydro if we can find a legal way to do so.  The heat for our house, shop, barns will be via the Central Boiler.

We know of several remote farms and ranches in our general area that are 100% off grid, and generate all of their own power.  Some of them do have a "cheat" and generate the houses heat via propane they have delivered.

It is expensive to set your house up to be independant.  My question is, exactly how much is the power going to cost when it comes time to retired, and live on less money?  My power rates have gone up every year, for the past three years, and I still have some of the cheapest power in the Nation since most of our power comes from hydro.

Investing in power/heat generated by your own house/farm is also an investment in your retirement, AND in the future generations that will live after you.  A win-win situation.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 7

I know it's not nearly as hard as society is making it out to be. Just look at how far technology has advanced for phones, computers and medicine. we have touch holograms and dual screens and headlights on cars that follow our freaking pupils! and we can't do any better than filthy gas burning engines from 150 years ago? lies

delinquent high school invalids have made these cars in their garage with spare parts. and multi billion dollar manufacturers with hundreds of senior engineers are stumped?

It's all the oil industry. they don't want to lose their billions so they pay off people and buy technology. The only fuel thats even making a dent in progress is ethanol. something that has to be bought from the oil companies and burned

Answer 8

i think it would be very expensive to start with,

Answer 9

It would be hard only in the beginning, until you get an idea of how stuff works with alternative energy systems they didn't teach you in school. But it works, believe me. And we would all live greener and healthier.

Answer 10

I think the problem lies with.....we need more.

Answer 11

If you are talking about individuals, than it would cost around $10,000 per house for solar power.  To convert the whole grid to solar, wind, and water would be prohibitive cost wise since only hydro power is semi-constant source of power.  Both solar and wind power has too many limitations to be a reliable long term solution on the scale that industry would need.

Answer 12

It isn't very hard to use solar and wind and water energy, but the thing is the price. If you wanted to get energy by solar power, you would have to change all of the machines and the electricity company won't like it. They won't get any more money if you bought a solar power machine and stuck it on your roof. you.

Answer 13

I think of it like this, the simplest way to power your own home is to spin about a 10 horse motor backwards.  If you live near a water fall its about as easy as it gets.  Now you got to purchase the equipment to spin that shaft at a constant speed no matter how it gets loaded or switch your house over to DC then you got other options, but either way you have to buy the equipment, you have to maintain it.  If people don't realize this is what governments for, then I think its apparent we've lost our sense of why it exist and what its suppose to do.

Answer 14

Solar and wind power sources would be incredibly difficult.  Water is more practical, but it has a lot of negative impacts on the environment and on the people who live where the hydroelectric dam's reservoir will be.  Also, dams can only be built where there are rivers, so this limits where hydroelectricity can be used.

I think that nuclear power is our best choice for sustainable, environmentally friendly energy.  Even though it might seem less desirable than the alternatives, it is more realistic, and much cheaper.