What's the pros and cons of solar energy versus wind energy?

Question

I'm planning on building a business. What would be the advantage of using solar cells or windmills to produce the power, or at least to keep the cost of electrical power down? The facility will be in the midwest and will be opened year round thru four seasons.

Answer 1

you could do both that's what I'm doing to my place. there are three wind mills going on the garage (vertical axis micro turbines not the behemoths you see at wind farms) they turn in as little as 5mph wind and surprisingly have a max velocity of 380 rpm no matter how hard it blows. they pose little danger to birds and there much cheaper for output. I built the rotors and mast myself with alternator and regulators I have less than a thousand in them I stole the design from a commercial unit costing 25k which I saw demoed where it averaged 15 kwatts. In a few years i want to put solar on the house roof, after nanosolar releases there new plastic film photovoltaic they said they expect to get costs down to 10 cents a watt from the $9 it is now

Answer 2

Ideally you could install what is called an hybrid system.

It is a combination of solar panels and wind turbine and its working fine.

The turbine will run 24 hours and the solar panels will produce electricity during the day.

Answer 3

Wind is a form of solar energy as is fossil fuel and hydroelectric. The solar cell is far better than any of the alternative energy systems for several reasons-they are more efficient and simple as well cleaner.

Answer 4

If you are doing it to "keep the cost of electrical power down", then forget it, unless you live where the sun shines all the time and your government provides good subsidies.

Solar is a good thing, and it works pretty good. Do it for the good of the environment, but don't think it will save money in most places. If that were true, then places like Phoenix would have panels on every house. There are very few.

We have a home in Mexico where electric power is not available. We and all our neighbors have solar power. It is much more expensive, and not reliable at times. Most here will take grid power if offered, without pause.

The Media, most "Environmentalists", and salesmen usually do not know what they are talking about, or lie about the real cost of Solar power.

Answer 5

The obvious ones are, they solar don't work on a cloudy day or at night and wind is no good on a really calm day. I myself use solar and love it but there are days. Solar also seems to carry a higher pricetag. I live in a motorhome and have not looked into house sized wind turbine prices, but about 11 years ago when I got solar a whole house in San Diego where I lived at the time ran between 50,000 to 75,000 dollars to get set up for solar power. These are old prices and I'm sure they have changed.

With a business you are looking at tax advantages as well and some states offer incentives as well, California has or at least used to have a tax credit program that helped a lot. Not knowing what your powern eeds are going to be and not knowing the weather patterns of where you are going makes it hard to figure which would be better for you. Maybe a combination of the two. If you have access to water and the power needs are not too big you may want to look at hydro electric as well. Unless your water source freezes over or dries up  you'll have 24/7/365 power, something neither solar or wind can give you.

Answer 6

From a purely environmental perspective, wind's disadvantage is primarily the hazards it poses to birds and to a lesser extent, the disruption of habitat in constructing and maintaining the turbines. The disadvantages of solar depend on the type of solar panels and set-up you use. Some photovoltaics use heavy metals as components that could pose a danger if not properly disposed of; also, larger-scale solar operations (where light is concentrated to a single point by using mirrors) can disrupt habitat too.

Some other considerations...wind turbines, if not properly constructed or located, can cause problems with noise and/or interfere with radar (if you're by an airport). Wind power at the moment, is generally cheaper than installing solar; however, I believe that in the future, wind patterns may change in response to climate change, and thus what may be a reliably windy location now may not be so in the future.

So really, it depends upon what your goals and priorities are I think. Regardless of whether you choose wind or solar though, you can rest assured that both are much better for the environment than many, many of the other forms of power out there, and that in the long run, as fossil fuel prices continue to rise, you will be glad that you made the upfront investment and will be laughing at those who did not have such vision.

Good luck!

Christine

Answer 7

I saw a great episode of Nova on PBS a few weeks ago: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/solar/

There is a lot of information here.  Only you can decide if this type of power is best for your business; it is certainly better for the planet to use alternative energy!  We have been studying solar and wind technology for a few years, and are planning to build a passive solar home in the spring.

Good luck, friend!

Answer 8

In my opinion they go hand and hand. When the sun goes down the wind usually kicks up. But really it depends on where you live. Where I live in Central/Northern Ontario Canada the north wind is blowing most of the time so I could get away with just a wind set up

Answer 9

well solar only produces a small amount of energy at this time!  and its veryyyy expensive!  Wind evergy is great but its hard to find a place with the wond blowing hard enough and long enough!  and even so, no place has wind that blows constantly!