Question by pirune E: How do places with wind and solar energy sustain their power?
Some places rely on solar and wind energy right? To power their homes and such. How do they use energy in the night or when there is no wind? Do they have something that stores the energy like a big battery or something?
I have to “make” a green city and it will use renewable energy source including solar and wind energy. How would I make the wind and solar energy sustainable and not have shortages of power?
What do you think? Answer below!
With solar and wind powered places, you only need so much energy for the panels or windmill to power itself. The rest of the energy is stored and used throughout the night or when there isn’t any wind. So really, it is a great way of using energy and for your project, you could say that you would transfer the power so at one time you are only using wind and the other you are only using solar.
Chevy to the Lance
May 10, 2013 at 6:45 pm
You don’t control when the wind will blow or when there is cloud covering the solar panel. You design enough windmill and solar panel so the system can generate enough and stable energy year around.Obviously, you need to store the energy somehow.
White Polar Bear
May 10, 2013 at 6:59 pm
Basically a big battery. Or a bunch of big batteries. But almost no place actually relies 100% on only wind and solar, because the batteries are expensive and not really green (full of toxins like lead and acid or whatever). So most places rely only partly on wind and solar, and use regular power company power when there is no wind at night.
campbelp2002
May 10, 2013 at 7:35 pm
Small places, like a remote house or an island, might have batteries. A large place, like a city, would be connected to a “Grid”, or electrical energy transmission system. If the wind stopped blowing, deep in the night, they would pull energy off the grid, from a nuclear plant, or coal-burning generation station, or hydroelectric project many miles away. A town on an island might have a large diesel generator.
Jerry Lee
May 10, 2013 at 8:06 pm