EAI presents Cleantech Snapshots: a quick summary of some of the most interesting and innovative areas in clean technology that will drive the sustainability movement in future.
This snapshot focuses on Solar-Wind hybrid. Within this page you will find
- An overview of Solar-Wind hybrid
- It’s Working
- Advantages of the system
- Area required for system setup
- Applications
Overview
- Solar-wind hybrids use solar panels and small wind turbine generators to generate electricity
- Typical capacities are in the range of 1 kW to 10 kW for the solar panel and the wind turbine combined system
- Wind blows when the sun does not shine, and vice versa. This complementary nature lends itself to a hybrid solution to generate reliable power.
- Currently, solar-wind hybrids are found only as small-scale systems and not in large, MW scale solar-wind farms owing to some bottlenecks
- With the advancements in grid management and related technologies, one can expect this hybrid technology to be far more prevalent in future
Solar-Wind hybrid system (Image source)
Our specialty focus areas include 
Working
- The solar panel and the wind turbine work in tandem to charge a battery via a controller
- The wind turbine could be a vertical axis wind turbine or a horizontal axis wind turbine.
- In a typical hybrid system the battery is first charged by the Solar, then by Wind
Advantages
- Ecologically sound
- Clean renewable energy
- Reduction of carbon footprint
- Cost effective
- Both Solar and Wind complement each other
Area required for system setup
- Smaller systems (1kW) take up about 1 m2
- Solar panels typically take up about 12 m2 for each kW
Applications
- Commercial and industrial sectors (Rural offices, Tourist hotels, etc.)
- Buildings in rural and urban fringe areas
- Railway tracking signaling
- High end residential apartments and villas
