Which Works The Best Solar Power Or Wind Power?
Which alternative energy is the most feasible, wind generators or solar panels? Which of these is the most efficient and which makes the most sense cost-wise and why?
It depends on what you want and where you are! If you are in a windswept desert, you could probably install both and sell a heck of a lot of power back to the grid (or just go off the grid and be super-charged!)
Everyone can make use of solar power in little and big ways. The sun is a nice free source of warmth for your home, your sun tea pitcher, your rising bread dough and your swimming pool without any fancy, expensive purchases. Add a few solar panels, and you've really got something.
Wind energy takes a lot of space to generate, so as far as I know, it's not as flexible and useful to homeowners as solar, but I could be wrong! ;D
Hi PhoenixV-
While solar arrays and wind turbines often co-exist, particularly in large installations, you need to understand some basics.
In the case of wind power, you will need to refer to a wind map (like a topographical map but for steady wind) to determine if there is enough wind and at a usable speed. Furthermore, since wind does not blow constantly, the conventional wisdom is that wind generation needs to be overbuilt by a factor of three to one. This means that if you want, say, 1 KW of power, you need to build 3 KW worth AND they need to be located in different places (would do no good to have 3 similarly located turbines all becalmed at the same time).
Solar phohtovoltaics, the most common for residential applications now, can be sized to accomodate most houses (build to about 80% of the annual need - not 100% or more), if there is sufficient south facing unshaded roof.
In both cases you remain connected to the native utility grid to provide power when your generation is not matching your needs (think, calm night). Also this permits the resale back to the utility when you have overgeneration.
There are currently several rebates, refunds, investment tax credits, renewable energy credits, and depreciation that helps offset the cost of these technologies.
Every person has their own tax circumstances (tax appetite is critical to be able to use credits) and their own environmental goals.
No one answer fits all.
-DW
Neither, what works best is when you use wind power along with solar power.
The answer to this question depends on the wind available on a regular basis, the sun available on a regular basis, and also the reliability and efficiency of your storage mechanism (battery, etc.). In other words, although this question has an answer in each specific instance in which you analyze this scenario that answer will vary.
This is not about which is best over the other. Solar power combined with wind power is the best way to generate enough renewable energy for day to day use. In places where there isn't enough wind, wind farms won't be feasible. In the same way, some parts of arctic where the sun won't rise for weeks can't rely on solar energy. Everything depends on the place you live and your energy requirement.
by Aya Katz 12 years ago
Which alternative energy source is more efficient and cheaper to maintain: solar panels or windmills?
by Shil1978 12 years ago
Which renewable energy sources offer the most promise?
by pramodgokhale 9 years ago
Solar power plant,how they distribute power through grid? is it expensive ?In India national solar mission is promoting solar power utilities and investment is being done by private industries.Many provinces has 300/330 sunny days and after installation renewable solar energy is available for...
by Kelly Kline Burnett 13 years ago
I love wind power for the environment but the US has airplane wings which are rather white and obnoxious - what is the rest of the world doing?The charming wind mills of Holland - a thing of the past or still in use?Visual pollution is sad too - I want both - great environmental energy and visual...
by Sylvia Talford 14 years ago
Has society had an impact on this Wind Power?
by ngureco 13 years ago
How to Build Solar Power System at Home
Copyright © 2024 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2024 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |