Solar Power Vs. Wind Power

pgames

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r139061476078vo1.jpg

or
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Personally i think solar power would be better... It's much more affordable and available to the general public.

Windmills are too big...

Solar power has been around longer.

What do you think?
 
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DeadBattery

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Solar!
There are plusses to it.
1) Doesn't need to be in tim buk 2 so no animals get hurt.
2) Much easier installation
3) Way cheaper than wind power.
That's what I think.
:)
 

LHVWB

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Its kinda a silly question, because if anyone is taking renewable energy seroiusly then they are going to invest in all sorts of different kinds of energy, to make sure that supply can be kept as steady as possible, because that is the things with both of these sources. They can just stop.

Both these types of renewable energy are very important because they are mature technologies, but there are other technologies which are used as well such as hydro, geothermal and tidal. Geothermal and tidal especially could have furthur investment into them, and are possibly better than solar and wind because they are abolutely always on.

There is a very interesting example of a geothermal plant in Australia, where they are pumping water underneth a desert down to some hot rocks a few kilometres down, which turn the water into stem, and then the steam coes back up to the ground, turns the turbines and then goes back. But of course the project is only a pilot and it doesn't have much government funding (previous government==climate change conservatives). :(
 
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callumacrae

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I use a solar panel: wind turbines seem to be really noisy, which is bad.
Solar Panels are quite ugly though.
It's helpful for telling people where we live: "House with the solar panel on top"
 

tittat

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Wind and solar energy offer a viable, economical
alternative to conventional power plants in many areas of the
country. Wind and solar are clean fuel; they produce no air or
water pollution because no fuel is burned. This survey consists
in creating a data base of the power delivered by the wind
machine and the solar panels. It permitted during the year 2006
to determine the monthly and yearly balances of these energies
in Lebanon. The experimental results show that the wind
machine can deliver more power than solar panels if it is placed
in a windy zone. The calculation of the efficiency and the
profitability of these tow types of conversion are also analyzed.
We noted that the wind machine’s efficiency is 2.2 times than
that of a solar panel and its price is 3 times less expensive than
that of the solar panels.
 
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Spartan Erik

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Solar isn't that affordable actually; it would take years to make back the money you put into building them. Additionally the life span of solar cells isn't that long, so you'd be drawn into an eternity of maintenance.

Alternative sources are nice, but I say we utilize natural gas and have greater efficiency standards
 

roboviv

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Dont both have their benefits depending on location and season ?

In northern USA, windpower seems more viable, and the in CA area solar would be more productive.
Both require heavy investment, but I think time for relying on fossils is over.

I think individuals could make small start at home in contributing to help reduce energy crisis by using solar power/panels at homes.
Consider starting by using solar garden/patio lights and the move to solar water heating..
 

lammoj

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Solar power is better and more efficent but if we could find a way to harness all the different types of rays from the sun intstead of just certain ones we could use solar power to replace the USs and Worlds dependancy on fossil fuels like oil and coal which harm the enviorment while solar power doesnt.
 

FalseHope

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Is there really a difference? They are both environmentally friendly, and bot serve the same purpose. Just in a different form. It would depend on your area for it to be affective, though.
 

Smith6612

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Wind turbines themselves are pretty quiet. I've heard from reliable sources that they are pretty much silent. I'd have to say that this is kind of a tie because of the fact that some areas get more wind than sunlight, while areas can sometimes get more sunlight and less wind, kind of like some regions on the equator and near the equator. The only thing about solar panels is that they require a lot of land and don't work at night, and with wind mills, can vary in power output as wind speed varies and some days may not work.
 

FalseHope

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They can work at night, they can store energy from the day, so I have heard.
 

Smith6612

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They can work at night, they can store energy from the day, so I have heard.

But that's by battery, which is expensive. The panels themselves won't work at night unless you can give them some artificial light, which does work (hence why solar calculators with no batteries work indoors)
 

dwd2000

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There are many ways of producing your own energy. Depending on where you live, you can use any or all of them. I would think that using more than one would help with the downfalls of just using one type.

I don't think anyone has mentioned using water or hydro power. This can be useful if you live near a fairly fast flowing stream or river.

Smith6612: All these forms charge a battery or batteries. You can't really use them directly. You can either buy a converter that changes the battery current from DC to your household AC current, or buy DC appliances and lights to run directly from the battery or batteries. Using a converter is not as efficient as using DC appliances and lights.

Wind power - http://canren.gc.ca/tech_appl/index.asp?CaId=6&PgId=232

Solar power - http://canren.gc.ca/tech_appl/index.asp?CaId=5&PgId=121

Water power - http://canren.gc.ca/tech_appl/index.asp?CaId=4&PgId=26

This is a page I found a while back that shows that having a wind turbine doesn't have to be expensive. You still have to get the battery and such.
http://www.mdpub.com/Wind_Turbine/index.html
 
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diabolo

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well if everyone is all in the get fit craze, right
so why not at the gyms have all the equipment hooked up to like a turbine, so as they exercise they are also creating energy, which can power the gym, and a couple stores around the area
 

madshell

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Being from a country where the sun doesn't shine a lot of the time but the wind blows constantly, im going for wind power.
True that it takes up less space but it's not really that hard to put up windmills on the sea now a days. + you get the benefit of being able to make power at night.
 

TechAsh

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Solar power. I think solar panels look nicer than wind turbines, and are completely silent. Also solar panels can work even if there isn't much light, whereas wind turbines do not work if there is no wind.
I do not know which would be more efficient (or cheapest) in the long run.
 
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