There are a number of windy areas in the world and many in the south west
and other places. One of the first was in southern California - gap towards
Nevada. There are unique designs now that are verticle and horizontal turbines.
They have promise. They are used in big city canyons and roof tops...

Solar Cells have a problem with the clouds. I would get 6 months of use at
about 50% loading and the rest of the time in the 20's. That is a 250,000 USD
design. Only if I were mega rich would I spend that kind of money for some
power.

Their issue is they don't see UV light at all. If UV then most of the time they
would work. Another issue

Martin

Wes wrote:
Is there someplace that has an analysis of how much energy is put into making, erecting,
and commissioning a windmill vs typical energy output. I'm wondering how long it takes to
recover the energy used to put it in place.

Since wind is a bit variable, we can assume it is somewhere in the wind corridor that T.
Boone Pickens was pitching.

I know solar cells have a lousy break even point unless the technology has changed
drastically.

Thanks,

Wes