How much would it cost a year to power a town off of solar or wind energy??? help!!?

Question

i live in charleston illinois its about a town of 40,000 with the college eastern illinois universtiy, im doing a project for school and i was curious if anyone would know about how much this would cost a year?

Answer 1

Well first you would need to convince the rest of the state to allow you to cover them up with YOUR panels, it would take a states worth of panels to even start to produce that kind of power.

Answer 2

There are a lot of factors here, like individual use and conservation.

I would think about, whatis the useful solar square footage on every roof. How much energy could yougenerate with that in a given day to offset the needs of the household?

The cost might not be as prohibitive as you think.

There are new solar technologies that are bringing the prices down, and with the cost of oil going up, how is this not a good thing!

Even if the oil didn't go up, it is still a finite resource for our time.

Street lights that are solar powered already exist.

LED lighting for ambient lighting in ahome would cut energy use a lot (think about realistic lighting needs vs actual use)

There are photographs of LA in teh 20's with roofs covered with solar water heaters. This is not new technology folks.  The REA and subsequent privitization of our energy sources has done a lot to get us where we are today....

Kay

Answer 3

Rooftop solar systems cost between $7 and $10 per watt to install.  

St. Louis, MO gets about 4.4 "full sun" hours per day.  So each watt of solar installed will produce, on average, about 4.4 watt-hours of energy each day.  

Now, you do the web search on average kWh usage per household, and the cost of electricity in your area.  

You're likely to come up with a payback longer than the 25 year life of the solar panels, or a cost of electricity about three to four times what you are currently paying.

But you'll need to double check that yourself.

I hope this helps.

Answer 4

The initial costs for solar panels or wind turbines is excessive and it would take many years to get a return on your investment.  The initial environmental impact would be instant as far as not burning fossil fuels for power.  Most areas such as Wind farms generate power in excess of their needs to sell it to other areas.  You can find out more information about this by going to www.GoElectricNow.com.  In the search box, enter solar or wind energy it it will provide with resources to obtain more information for manufactures along wiht data for energy costs.

Answer 5

Check Normal Ill. When I drive through there I see all kinds of wind mills powering the area.