| By :
Roger Brown
Somehow, a strange competition has developed in the renewable energy world between wind power vs solar power. I suppose it is only natural. The companies that make these products though are trying to force you to choose sides. Amplifying one of renewable solution over another is simply not what our goal should be. Both are valid ways to take advantage of the inherent energy in the environment. Here is why these technologies are complimentary… Solar's advantages are… Available during the day - since the sun doesn't shine at night. This is the biggest limitation of solar energy. Certain areas of the country are simply a lot better candidates for taking advantage of solar power. That is because they have a lot more days of sunshine. Las Vegas for example, has 85% sun and Buffalo, NY only 48%!Passive energy production - there are no moving parts. Solar systems are very simple and they don't break very often. They are also typically mounted in areas - like on roofs - where they are very easy to access and work on. Wind power works for these reasons… Available during the day and at night, but the wind blows more consistently in the day. That's because the majority of wind is caused by heating of the ground and release of that heat into the atmosphere.Takes up very little area, especially if you mount on your roof. Wind power is very intuitive to understand and verticals especially take up surprisingly little space on your roof. The best renewable energy systems in the future will be hybrids - consisting of both wind power and solar power. These systems exist now, like WindEnergy7's combination wind/solar roof mounted unit. The advantage of hybrids is they take advantage of the strengths of both solar and wind concepts. In conclusion, the only way we are going to dig ourselves out of the energy hole we are in is to grab on to every renewable energy option that is out there and try to optimize it. We can't look at any energy solution as a standalone. We need to use all the tools in our toolbox to us to solve this problem. Wind power vs solar power should be changed to "how can wind power be combined with solar power to create a more optimal home energy solution?" By looking at solar and wind as complimentary power sources, we can best take advantage of all the renewable energy available.
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