Becomes more and more popular, and among the methods of obtaining alternative energy overlook new level Wind and solar power plants.

In the last century, the technology of obtaining electricity from renewable resources was very dubious and ineffective, and the windmills also published a lot of noise, now innovative technologies Allow to fully move to the side of the environmentally friendly energy without any inconvenience.

Modern attitudes meet the requirements in matters of dimensions, power and design, making unconventional sources A truly progressive choice. What better wind generator or solar panels for home?

Comparative characteristics of wind and solar power plants

1. Rationality of purchase.

Wind generator for home - Excellent idea, but only in the case when there are strong winds in your region. It is preferable to install wind turbines in private houses, farms in a steppe or seaside zone, where the wind speed ensures the efficiency of the installation. At the same time, a small windmill may well provide small electrical appliances, and the turbine is capable of generating so much electricity that is enough to meet the needs of several houses.

Solar panels for home are non-additive structures that can be installed at any climate, although the hotter, the more effective panels will work. Unlike windmasterwhich only works at the time of the presence of wind, solar modules Create energy even with cloudy weather.

Small portable solar panels It is very convenient to ensure a small technique, but the system of several modules can give energy independence for a private house or apartment.

2. Cost of construction.

Earlier wind power plants It was worth an order of soaring solar panels, but now everything has changed dramatically. The powerful installation of solar modules has a tendency to decay prices and at the same time it is much easier to mount and operate, besides the term of work is much higher than that of windmills.

Thus, solar energy is more profitable to the wind, but this does not concern the case when the turbines are installed in places with strong winds - such structures are very powerful and quickly pay off.

3. Payback.

Wind power plants - Pretty expensive pleasure, since in addition to the main elements, it often has to spend money for the construction of towers for turbines and other reasons.

If the region does not imply strong and frequent winds, it may happen that the powerful design will outlines its own for 20 years, and without paying for those that were spent on it.

Solar power plant Initially, it is much less, but the effectiveness of their work is slightly losing. Despite this, solar modules can even work at night or in cloudy weather, which allows producing more electricity. Given the long service life and the opportunity to take advantage of such a project as a green solar tariff, the modules pay off on average for 10 years.

Comparing windmills and solar modules, It can be concluded that for private houses and apartments, the energy of the Sun will be more appropriate, and the owners of farms, plantations and other significant areas can combine these energy sources and receive double benefits.

Reader question:

I am preparing to build a country house in the area where there is no common electrical network, so I want to establish an alternative energy system, but I do not know what to choose. There are opportunities to use various renewable resources, but I can not decide how to express priorities. Here are some evaluation facts that I collected:

• 3.3 solar clocks (average daily per year) with minimal shading on my site.
• 3.5-4 m / s Average wind speed at a height of 30 m tower, 10 m above the top of the highest tree.
• The flow of water with a height difference from 9 m to 120 m, about 0.15 m³ / min is available all year round, with the possibility of the location of the generator 220 meters from the house.

They say HPP is the "best" choice because it requires a permanent strong wind, and solar panels are more expensive, but more reliable and probably justified in the long run. Perhaps I will need several sources.

I have a rather economical electricity consumption. At the moment I am spending about 8 kWh per day in my urban apartment. I also plan to buy energy-saving techniques, so I expect consumption in my country house will not greatly exceed the city consumption. What you need to envisage when choosing an alternative system to avoid costly errors?

It's nice to deal with such a clearly formulated question. The most important parameter is the production of the required energy (8 kWh / day), although it is also important to take into account the loss. Energy is lost in the wires, battery, inverter, load drops, etc., so you need to count on average, by 12 kWh / day.

HydrogeneratorThis is probably the cheapest source of energy. In addition, the HPP also works at night and winterthat will save on the use of expensive batteries. You can estimate the available power of the hydropower station (Watt) by multiplying the difference in the height of the stream and division by 10. In your case, a well-connoissed system can give 120 W. In 24 hours it will turn out: 120 × 24 ÷ 1000 \u003d 2.88 kWh / day. Additional costs of pipes and wires will be small compared to the advantages. If you install a hybrid solar-hydro-power plant, additional kW in rainy weather will be especially pleasant when the performance of solar cells is reduced.

Although pipes 3. inch diameter It will work well with a volume of 0.15 m³ / min, a 4-inch pipeline will reduce pipe losses from 12% to 3%, as well as increase the possible volume to 0.3 m³ / min or more, if any.

Remoteness 220 meters is a rather long transmission cable, so you should also take into account the losses due to resistance. Consider using a higher voltage generator connected via a precipitation controller for accurate maximum power (MPPT) to prevent overload. MPPT automatically controls the system when changes in the stream, avoiding the need to manually adjust when changing conditions.

Solar electricity It is the following option. Good news is that the prices for solar batteries fall. The photoelectric system will complement the hydraulic system, as it works better in dry, sunny weather, but its performance can disappoint in winter. Presumably, you can get about 70% of the required energy. For example, at 3.3 sun, 3 kW battery produces about 7 kWh / day. Again, MPPT can help improve this picture.

Wind energymay have been interesting, but in this case is not the most rational. Installation of the 30th meter tower is not cheap, and the energy produced at a speed of 3.5-4 m / s will not be much. The wind is an unstable source of energy, requiring expensive batteries and a backup generator. From the point of view of effort and costs, the wind is more expensive and complex choice for your locality.

For more accurate estimate, compare specifications Alternative system manufacturers. But note that they, as a rule, provide optimistic data. Please note that you get two times more energy at the average wind speed of 5 m / s compared with 3.5-4 m / s. You can determine the average daily production of kWh by dividing the annual production volume on 365. However, do not forget, for many days it will not produce almost nothing.

Regardless of which source you choose, you will need an effective backup battery. Try to minimize its use. Although, he may need to save your system when natural conditions will be against you. If your hydroistrocker is really flowing all year round, and you are ready for sharp energy cuts from time to time, you can avoid using large batteries.

In any case, before making the final decision to invest your investment, make sure you know what to expect before making a decisive step.

>

Experience in the manufacture of windmill and solar panels

Brief descriptions with photos about how the homemade wind generator was made, he first was a huge vertical, but then he became a horizontal windmill.

>

A small wind generator for 300 watts

The wind generator was installed at the end of October 2012, set themselves for themselves. The wind generator itself was bought, the inverter for 12/220 volts, and the battery. The mast was already, the entire installation and lifting did themselves.

>

Pile energy from wind and sun

Photos of a small power plant, in which the homemade wind generator, six solar panels, two accumulators of 150 and. There are several controllers on the battery, the inverter is clean chin, the switching device to the power grid and back.

>

Small wind-solar power plant

Photo and description of the low wind solar power station, in which four solar panels, two 100 watts and two to 230 watts. The wind generator of 500VATT is also installed. Battery block for 200Ah 24V, part of which lead-acid, and other automotive.

>

Small solar power station in the Klinsky district of the Moscow region

Using the energy of the Sun in the Moscow region to provide electricity country house. Report on electricity generation testimony from 2013-2014.

>

Dmitry's experience and a brief overview of his site

Most recently stumbled this very interesting site for me. The author himself removes and lay out a lot of video rollers and reviews of any electronics, controllers, wind generators. At the moment, there are probably more than hundreds of rollers in which there are a lot of useful information.

>

Power station for his home provides 300kW per month

The entire project of building a house and power plant was thought out in advance. The wind power station is wind-solar, hybrid as it is now fashionable to call, fully ensures the power consumption of the house. The Krasnodar region is solar and not windy region, but in winter wind generators produce 50% of energy.

>

Power station from wind and sun

Small photo report about self-assembly and operation of a wind-solar power plant. The first was the homemade wind generator, then four homemade solar batteries were added, later two more factory was added to them. Then a powerful inverter was bought with the ability to drain energy to the central power grid.

>

Own solar power station

Solar power station in a private house with a capacity of 1kW for saving and almost complete transition to solar energy. It all started with interest in this topic and buying the first two panels, then two more panels were made personally, well, and then a few more purchased and the capacity was added to 1000vatt * h.

>

Wind generator 300Vatt for minimum needs

Electrification at home due to a small wind generator in the absence of a central power grid. When there is no possibility to bring electricity, you need to invent something, do not burn constantly gasoline, the wind generator has become exit from the position, which charged two batteries of a large container, in a minimum of energy enough.

>

Wind generator for his house 3kvt

Our small history of the acquisition and installation of the wind generator with a power of 3kW with a mast height of 23 meters. In short, the windset consists of 10kW / h batteries, the inverter 3kW and the wind generator itself with the controller and the control panel. If you do not get involved with the constant inclusion of powerful electrical appliances, then electricity is enough for everything.

>

Solar power station at the cottage 800 watts, full autonomous system

Pretty powerful solar power station in the country house, designed for lighting, refrigerator, deep pump, and other everyday needs. At first, the panel power was 400 watts, but in 2012 the power of the power plant doubled, the capacity of the batteries increased to 800 and.

>

Solar Panel 80Vatt in the country

Experience using a solar panel to provide electricity dacha house. Of course, this is a complete electric security, but the minimum that this mini power plant is needed gives. There is light, TV, as well as charge any small electronics, turn on the laptop.

Now you will learn what the sellers of solar panels will never tell.

Exactly a year ago, in October 2015, as an experiment, I decided to sign up in the ranks of "green", saving our planet from premature death, and acquired solar panels with a maximum power of 200 watts and a grid-inverter, a maximum of 300 (500) watts produced with a maximum of 300 (500) . In the photo you can see the structure of the polycrystalline 200-watt panel, but in a couple of days after the purchase it became clear that in solitary configuration it has too low voltage, insufficient for the proper operation of my grid inverter.

Therefore, I had to change it into two 100-watt single-crystal panels. Theoretically, they should be a little more efficient, they are just more expensive. These are high quality panels, Russian SunWays brand. For two panels, I paid 14,800 rubles.

The second line of expenses is a GRID-inverter of Chinese production. The manufacturer did not designate himself, but the device was done qualitatively, and the autopsy showed that the internal components are designed to power up to 500 watts (instead of 300 written on the housing). There is such a grid of only 5,000 rubles. Grid is a brilliant device. On the one hand, it is connected to it + and - from solar panels, and on the other hand, it is connected to anyone using a conventional electric fork. electrical outlet in your house. In the process of operation, the grid adjusts to the frequency on the network and begins to "pump out" alternating current (converted from permanent) into your home network 220 volts.

Grid works only if there is a voltage in the network and cannot be considered as reserve source Nutrition. This is his only minus. A colossal advantage of the inverter grid is that you basically do not need batteries. After all, accumulators are the weakest link in alternative energy. If the same solar panel will be guaranteed for more than 25 years (that is, in 25 years, it will lose about 20% of its productivity), then the service life of an ordinary lead battery in similar conditions will be 3-4 years. Gel and AGM batteries will serve longer, up to 10 years old, but they are 5 times more expensive than ordinary batteries.

Since I have network electricity, I do not need any batteries. If you do the system autonomous, then you need to add another 15-20 thousand rubles to the budget on the battery and the controller to it.

Now that concerns the generation of electricity. All the energy generated by solar panels in real time enters the network. If there are consumers of this energy in the house, it will be all spent, and the counter at entering the house "spin" will not. If the instant energy generation exceeds currently consumed, then all the energy will be transferred back to the network. That is, the counter will "spin" in the opposite direction. But here there are nuances.

First, many modern electronic counters They consider the current passing through them without taking into account its direction (that is, you will pay for the electricity disclosed back to the network). And secondly, Russian legislation does not allow individuals to sell electricity. This is permitted in Europe and that is why every second house is covered with solar panels, which in a set with high network tariffs allows you to really save.

What to do in Russia? Do not put solar panels that can produce energies more than the current day power consumption in the house. It is for this reason that I have only two panels with a total capacity of 200 watts, which, taking into account the losses of the inverter, can give in approximately 160-170 watts. And my house consumes more than 130-150 watts for about 130-150 watts per hour. That is, all the energy generated by solar panels will be guaranteed to be consumed inside the house.

To control the energy generated and consumed, I use SMAPPEE. I already wrote about him last year. He has two current transformers that allow you to record both the network and the electricity produced by solar panels.

Let's start with the theory, and let's go to practice.

There are many solar power plant calculators on the Internet. From my source data, according to the calculator, it follows that the average annual electricity generation of my solar panels will be 0.66 kWh / day, and the total generation for the year is 239.9 kWh.

This is the data for ideal weather conditions and excluding losses for the conversion of DC into variable (you are not going to redo the power supply of your household on constant voltage?). In reality, the resulting digit can be safely divided into two.

Compare with real data on the year:

2015 - 5.84 kWh
October - 2.96 kWh (from October 10)
November - 1.5 kWh
December - 1.38 kWh
2016 - 111.7 kWh
January - 0.75 kWh
February - 5.28 kWh
March - 8.61 kWh
April - 14 kWh
May - 19,74 kWh
June - 19.4 kWh
July - 17,1 kWh
August - 17,53 kWh
September - 7.52 kWh
October - 1.81 kWh (until October 10)

Total: 117.5 kWh

Here is a schedule for developing and consuming electricity in a country house over the past 6 months (April-October 2016). It was for April-August that the lion's share was developed by sunbathing (more than 70%) electrical Energy. Over the past few months, the production was impossible for the most part due to cloudiness and snow. Well, we do not forget that the efficiency of the Grid on the constant current conversion to the variable is approximately 60-65%.

Solar panels are installed almost in ideal conditions. The direction is strictly south, there are no high houses of discarding shadows nearby, the angle of installation relative to the horizon is exactly 45 degrees. This angle will give the maximum average annual generation of electricity. Of course you could buy rotary mechanism With the electric drive and the functions of tracking the Sun, but it would increase the budget of the entire installation almost 2 times, thereby reducing the period of its payback to infinity.

By developing solar energy On sunny days I have no questions. It fully corresponds to the calculated one. And even a decrease in the development of winter when the sun does not rise high above the horizon there would be no critical if not ... cloudiness. It is the cloudiness that is the main enemy of photovoltaics. Here is the hourly development in two days: 5 and 6 October 2016. The fifth of October shone the sun, and on October 6, the sky tightened lead clouds. Sun, ay! Where did you hide?

In winter, there is another small problem - snow. You can only solve it in one way, install the panels almost vertically. Either every day manually clean them from snow. But the snow is nonsense, the main thing is to shine the sun. Let even be low above the horizon.

So, we calculate the costs:

Grid Inverter (300-500 watts) - 5,000 rubles
Monocrystalline Solar Panel (Grade A - Top Quality) 2 pcs 100 watts - 14,800 rubles
Wires for connecting solar panels (cross section 6 mm2) - 700 rubles
Total: 20 500 rubles.
Over the past reporting period, 117.5 kWh was developed, according to the current day rate (5,53 rubles / kWh), this will be 650 rubles.
If we assume that the cost of network tariffs will not change (in fact they change over a large side 2 times a year), then I can return your investments in alternative energy only after 32 years!

And if you add batteries, then the whole system will never pay off. Therefore, the solar energy in the presence of network electricity can be beneficial only in one case - when electricity will cost both in Europe. It will cost 1 kWh network electricity over 25 rubles, then the solar panels will be very beneficial.
In the meantime, the use of solar panels is beneficial only where there is no network electricity, and its holding is too expensive. Suppose you have his country house, located 3-5 km from the nearest electrical line. Moreover, it is high-voltage (that is, the installation of the transformer will be required), and you have no neighbors (no one to share costs). That is, for connecting to the network you will have to pay the conditionally 500,000 rubles, and then it is also paid over the network tariffs. In this case, you will be more profitable to buy solar panels for this amount, the controller and batteries - after all, after entering the system, you will not need to pay any more.
In the meantime, it is worth considering photovoltaics exclusively as a hobby.