I know a fair bit as I studied them for one of my degree modules earlier this year.
Don't use it myself as I'm in rented accomodation and I dont have large amounts of money to use on something like that.
If you have it you do still have to use electricity as electricity is what the panels produce. In the UK you'd still have to use national grid as it's simply not sunny enough here.
personally I wouldn't use it, I'm a firm beleiver that wind and wave power and geothermal power are much more effective technologies.
Haha, this is what I study about in uni. :D
I would use solar power if I had enough money and my own home, no questions asked. With solar power, you still would need to purchase electricity from the grid, as most likely not enough will be produced from the panels.
I agree with the above when it comes to wave and geothermal power as alternative energy sources. However, theses are very costly.
And I don't agree with wind for alternative energy.
I don't know what you mean by your question about if they all work the same. They are all completely different mechanisms. And, a reservoir of what? It depends more on geography and climate.
Are you asking about alternative energy sources for your own home? Or as an energy supply for the entire community?
If for you're own home hydro-electric power isn't really feasible funnily enough :-P
Haha, this is what I study about in uni. :D
I would use solar power if I had enough money and my own home, no questions asked. With solar power, you still would need to purchase electricity from the grid, as most likely not enough will be produced from the panels.
I agree with the above when it comes to wave and geothermal power as alternative energy sources. However, theses are very costly.
And I don't agree with wind for alternative energy.
I don't know what you mean by your question about if they all work the same. They are all completely different mechanisms. And, a reservoir of what? It depends more on geography and climate.
Just being nosy but why don't you agree with wind for alternative energy?
Is it because of the aesthetics or something else?
Hydroelectric power generally means damming a river, flooding surrounding land and generating power for that. They are seriously large-scale projects providing townsworth of electricity.
There is technology developed that can use river flow to generate power but it isn't really in commercial use yet.
This is a subject close to my heart. Our cottage in the Western Isles of Scotland is on its own island and has no mains electricity.
For the past 10 years or so we've used a combination of small wind turbines and photovoltaic panels to charge a bank of batteries which in turn provide basic lighting, a small fridge, TV and so on. Because that far north the winter nights are long there is no doubt that the wind turbines produce many times as much energy as do the solar panels, month on month. In other sunnier locations which have little wind the reverse may apply.
But, underlying all these seductive green solutions is the fundamental question of the capital investment involved. In most parts of UK it would take many years for solar energy to repay the costs involved. In the far NW of Scotland wind power is by far the most cost-effective solution if you want to go green - but it's still going to cost. A monthly electricity bill is one thing, a capital outlay of thousands of pounds is something else!
We're about to install a rather larger wind turbine which will hopefully make us very much self-contained in terms of power. But we're under no illusions - it's going to cost biggish bucks and, for us in that location, no way is a solar solution a viable alternative.
Tony.
PS. UK gets by far the greatest part of the wind reaching Europe from the Atlantic. For my money I'd be happy to see an uninterrupted line of wind turbines right down the west side of UK - and I wouldn't let a breath of wind get through to the rest of the Continent! It's all ours I tell you ... !
I am in a sunny climate. There is research going on here in California about solar power. We have wind turbines in the passes where the winds are naturally funneled into the narrower areas.
In my condo/flat here, we use passive solar power. We only run our heater for 3 hours a day, that for showers. The long wall of our place faces south, keeps it warm enough. I wish the technology was in place for low cost active solar power. Our electric/air conditioning bill in the summer is ghastly.
My husband is my best friend.
In forgiving others, we are not exonerating them. They may not deserve exoneration. Rather, in forgiving others we are giving up our anger over the fact that what happened is not what "should" have happened or that our life is not the way it "should" have been.
