Your Questions About Solar Energy Generator Suppliers

admin answers:

Electric motors produce mechanical power from electrical power. If the power is 1hp, the power is 746 watts. The motor needs more than 746 watts of electrical power to produce 746 watts of mechanical power. However it only produces 746 watts of mechanical power if it is driving a load that needs that power.

The motor bike spark plug may require 10-15000V certainly, but that is not electrical power, it is only voltage. Electrical power has 2 components, voltage and current. The current in the spark may be only 2 milliamps. Thus the peak power is 10,000V x 0.002A = 20W. Additionally that is only for a brief part of the time. There is just one spark every 2 revolutions of the engine, maybe 25 sparks a second, so a spark is a small percentage of the time. The energy (in watt-seconds) is very small.

If the motorbike has a battery, it is charged by a small generator on the motorbike. This is 6V or 12V battery, a far more suitable source of power to drive an electric motor. However this battery would usually be too small for a 1 or 2 hp motor.

Working out the power for the motor, lets say 1000W of electrical power is needed to produce 746W (one hp) of mechanical power. With a 12V battery the current = 1000W / 12V = 83A. You need a battery that can deliver 83A per hp for as long as you wish to run the motor. You need something to charge that battery. An 80Ah battery would run for 1 hour in theory, but more like 20 minutes in practice. You would use a higher voltage and bigger battery for better efficiency, maybe a 24V battery and motor. It is possible to charge this battery using solar panels or a home generator. However it is more efficient (cheaper) to run the suitable motor directly from the generator, than to use the generator to charge the battery and run a motor.

You are asking a lot of questions, good to learn, but you should explain the big picture, what you actually want to do. What is the motor for? How long to run? What power source is available? Power from electricity suppliers is usually the cheapest.

admin answers:

The big “hidden” problem with wind and solar power generation is that we can’t store electricity in the amounts necessary to keep everything going when the wind stops or sun goes down. This means that when the wind stops blowing or the sun is hidden by clouds (or at night), some other means of production of electricity has to exist. We cannot run cities and factories on batteries charged when it’s windy or when the sun is shining. This means that EITHER we have to maintain the “old, polluting” systems such as coal, gas, water and nuclear OR we have to DO WITHOUT through rationing via brownouts, blackouts, use restrictions, etc.

Assume that you live in an area that uses 1000Mw of power. Right now, you have two coal fired plants and a hydroelectric plant (dammed river & generators) to produce the 1000Mw needed. Joe Thompson, billionaire, decides to start a wind farm. At peak capacity, his 1000 wind turbines produce 500Mw of power. So, when the wind turbines are running at full capacity, one coal plant can be shut down and the other can go to 75%. This allows for 1000Mw of power to be fed to the electric grid. Without shutting down the coal plants, there would be more electricity on the grid than demand, which is a no-no.
Now, the wind stops for a few days. The coal plants kick back in and go to 100% production to maintain the 1000Mw on the local grid.

Since the coal plants are unable to be profitable at 0% and 75%, the owners of the coal plants shut them down and stop producing. The hydroelectric and wind production are all that remain. Joe Billionaire builds enough wind turbines to replace the coal plants (while the wind is blowing). Everything is green, until the wind stops and the amount of power available drops to 0 (or whatever the hydro plant is producing).
Then, everything stops and everyone is in the dark.

Power supplies HAVE to be stable. Nuclear, Coal, Gas, and hydroelectric have been and can continue to be stable steady suppliers. Wind and solar will ALWAYS be temperamental and will require backup production by the sources they’re supposed to replace. If those backup sources have to be maintained, the price of electricity from “free” wind will skyrocket. Having idle power facilities is like having a Ferrari in your driveway as a backup car for when your Prius breaks down. It still has to be washed, insured, and paid for, but you get nothing out of it. Eventually, you get rid of the Ferrari. Then your Prius breaks and you walk.