Alternative Energy Sources

Consider the following issues:

What renewable sources of energy are available?

Which sources could be used to supply a household's needs? How could each source be used?

Where would the home have to be located to use each source?

What equipment would be needed? Where would this equipment be located?

What backup systems should be included?

For all you smart people out there, please answer all of these questions!

renewable sources:
solar
wind
tide
wave
geothermal, while not renewable, is often classed in this area as it is inexhaustable.

Depends on the household and where it is located. Windy area, use wind power. Lots of sun, use solar power.

solar array would be on the roof. wind generator would be on a tower.
You will need a large array of batteries to supply power when the sun/wind is not available. Alternatively, sell power back to the electric utility company and use power from them during periods of no sun or wind.

if this is an isolated house with no access to the power grid, I'd have a diesel generator for backup.

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If I have a solar power system in my home, and it generates 1killowatt of energy, does that mean I can use 1 killowatt in a day? My lightbulbs only use 13 watts in an hour…. does that mean that I could have 100 bulbs on at the same time? I am confused! Can anybody answer this question?

First, kilowatts measure power, which is unit energy per unit time (kilojoules/second in this case). Kilowatt hours are a measurement of energy.

Your panel produces 1000 joules per second, which equates to 24 kilowatt*hours per day, maximum.

Therefore, your energy consumption for your household at any one time cannot exceed 1000 J/s. The lightbulb consumes 13 joules per second, or 1.3% of the 1000 joules per second that your panel produces. So, your assumption about 100 bulbs was fundamentally correct, though off by a bit.

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Hello, I'm a student conducting a short open-ended survey to get a feel of how solar-powered installations at home will be perceived and received by the average person. Your responses will help me develop a sustainable product for residential use. Feel free to respond and send me your comments. Thank you very much for helping! - MariaCGL

We used to have solar pannels on our roof that powered some lightbulbs in our house. This was in the Philippines more than 10 years ago. It seemed to work, although I think there was some sort of back up power since we had lights even during cloudy and stormy days. I suppose it would be nice to have solar powered appliances as long as it has a backup power source for those short and cloudy winter days. I think it would be great to have some sockets that are connected to a mini station that is constatntly being recharged by solar power. That way you can plug anything in the socket and recharge your moblie or use a hair dryer or reading lamp. It would also be handy for those rare days of power cuts so that even if the main power source is cut due to a storm or something, you will still be able to use those little essential appliances by plugging them into the sockets. I hope this helps!

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like having a small windmill at my backyard?

Yes. but will it pay off? That depends on how often you have windy days. And how much it costs.

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…Is it a true and good alternative? Is it just denial? Do they not want to change? Is it the initial cost? Does it need more time/study/research?
What could it do for our country’s future energy needs?
…I honestly want to hear your answers; please, no abusive or cynical answers…I really desire honest discussion.
…Thanks.

Solar Panels are much effective and important for Environment and very useful to avoid pollution of any kind. So, I think it provides all those electronic products of daily use, Almost environment-friendly.
Many Solar Products are available over internet to sale.
One of those, check here: http://www.agritura.com/index.php/cat/c73_Solar-Devices.html

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Serious discussion here.

How feasible is the idea of communities, towns, even whole cities being powered by solar energy? At the most, how about these communities being fractionally powered by solar energy; 40% Solar/ 60% Fossil fuels?

We're not getting all George Jetson, here. We have practical means by which to make something like this happen. My research has lead me to believe the problem comes in with the initial setup.

If this is so, what would it take to materialize the dollars? Should each State solicit a 'solar energy' tax; money dedicated to fund R&D solutions for citizens? Is it something that can be solicited to big business in exchange for free plugins; Staples invests in a solar power grid in Downtown Los Angeles… and calls it 'The Staples Power Center".

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power#Advantages_and_disadvantages_of_Solar_power
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_ponds

First of all, look for existing incentives from the federal and state government. Federally, there is a 30% tax credit and some states offer as much as $5.00 per Watt rebates. You can get more information here: http://www.desireusa.org

Secondly, there are some up and coming technologies that will offer better economics than PV panels in the near future. Check out http://www.infiniacorp.com/
http://www.sandia.gov and http://www.nrel.gov

Third, for the kind of project you describe, it really comes down to financing. This will be easiest if you are planning to build a new community. Find a lender (bank or government) that will allow home-buyers to roll the solar energy system into their mortgage. This practice, along with a healthy rebate, helped to make Japan the PV capital of the world a few years back.

On a larger scale, many states are enacting renewable portfolio standards which legally require utilities to generate a certain fraction of power from solar, wind or biomass. RPS programs are also described on the DSIRE website listed above.

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Can renewable energy truly be good for the economy, and how so?

Renewable energy can be good once we have a storage system to store the sun's, wind's, etc's energy and use it when we need it.

It is good for the economy because it is getting more and more expensive to dig up conventionals.

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And is an area of 1 km^2 for a solar power tower enough to produce energy for five houses? can you make an approximation of how much it could supply?

If you want the heat energy, consider tracking mirrors at the site and solar collectors on the houses. If you want electric energy, that area is enough to support a traditional steam turbine, much more cost-effective than photovoltaic. That area is about 15 times the area that Solar One used to generate 10 megawatts in the Mohave Desert, so it could supply a theoretical maximum of 150 megawatts during peak sunshine. That's probably enough to match the demand of about 25,000 homes. Best bet would be to feed it to the electric power grid.

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I am a general contractor in Texas, I am currently designing a environmentally friendly home for myself and young family to live in. I am viewing my options on electricity generation, i.e PV with battery and invertor, bio diesel generators, solar powered stirling engine, possibly offsetting solar power with wind. I have a design for a trombe wall which will help cool the house in the summer and heat it in the winter. Solar powered H2O heaters are a no brainer, My brother in the UK has one and has an abundant amount of hot H20. The cooling system will probably encompass geo-thermal energy, again a lot of systems available, unfortunately for the masses these systems are more expensive than traditional energy sucking compressors and heat exchangers. Hopefully by the time I invest in renewable energy for my home the government will offer more than a $2000.00 TAX credit toward the investment.
If so please forward me details.

Yes

But I live in England

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I want to build a house, but I want to have all its electricity and heating done by solar and wind energy. Is that possible? Heck even has its water pump by solar/wind.

Of course. Our house is on electric, powered by a 5kw solar system. The AC, dryer, refrigerator, water heater is all electric. Our heat is from a wood stove, but we could put in a whole house electric heating unit if we wanted. No problem. I don't know much about wind energy, but I know a house can be powered solely by solar power. Putting in wind power would be another expense.

You would have to pay up front, when the house is bring built, but the monthly costs would be next to nothing (depending on whether you're hooked up to your electric company's grid versus on rechargeable batteries - out electric company changes us about $6/month for the privilege to be hooked up to their system).

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