Case of Study
Power Comparison between Solar Panel & Wind Turbine
This study is based on the data provided by a solar panel solution provider in Hong Kong and our calculation.
The purpose is to compare under the same size of area and period of time, how much energy will be generated by Solar Power and Wind Power.
According to the Solar Panel Solution Provider’s information, the power generating of 1 solar panel is 340 Walt.
The power of our basic model with a 0.5-meter diameter is 360 Watt. However, to make it easy to understand, we simply use 340 Watt too for the calculation and comparison.
It is assumed that solar panels and wind turbines are to be deployed on the roof of a standard 700 square feet house in Hong Kong. According to Hong Kong law, an area of 350 square feet can be used for the installation of solar panels or wind turbines. The following diagrams show how much power will be generated in 1 year.
Case 1: 12 Wind Turbines compared with 20 Solar Panels in 350 feet2for 1 year
| Solution | Area Square Feet |
No. of Solar Panel | Power Per Solar Panel (Walt) | Hour of Max. Sunlight per day | Hour of Sun/Year | Power kWh (BxCxE) | FiT payment per kWh HKD | Profit from FiT per year (FxG) HKD |
| Solar Panel | 350 | 22 | 340 | 2.74 | 1000.1 | 7480.748 | 5 | 37,403.74 |
| Solution | Area Square Feet |
No. of Wind Turbine | Power Per Wind Turbine (Walt) | Hour of Wind per day (speed 10m/hr) | Hour of Wind per year (speed 10m/hr) | Power kWh (BxCxE) | FiT payment per kWh HKD | Profit from FiT per year (FxG) HKD |
| Wind Turbine | 350 | 12 | 340 | 12 | 4380 | 17870.4 | 5 | 89,352.00 |
Case 2: 16 Wind Turbines compared with 20 Solar Panels in 350 feet2for 1 year
| Solution | Area Square Feet |
No. of Solar Panel | Power Per Solar Panel (Walt) | Hour of Max. Sunlight per day | Hour of Sun/Year | Power kWh (BxCxE) | FiT payment per kWh HKD | Profit from FiT per year (FxG) HKD |
| Solar Panel | 350 | 22 | 340 | 2.74 | 1000.1 | 7480.748 | 5 | 37,403.74 |
| Solution | Area Square Feet |
No. of Wind Turbine | Power Per Wind Turbine (Walt) | Hour of Wind per day (speed 10m/hr) | Hour of Wind per year (speed 10m/hr) | Power kWh (BxCxE) | FiT payment per kWh HKD | Profit from FiT per year (FxG) HKD |
| Wind Turbine | 350 | 16 | 340 | 12 | 4380 | 23827.2 | 5 | 119,136.00 |
Conclusion
It is found that although the number of solar panels deployed is more than wind turbines, wind turbines can generate much more power. It is mainly because the operating hour of the wind turbines is much more than a solar panel, which is limited to work on sunny days only.
It is expected Wind Turbine is a perfect match to work together with Solar Panel so that the whole power generating system can generate stable power in the whole day.