> I find it continually strange how much more attention solar gets than wind.
replyIt's because solar gets cheaper faster than wind does. The experience rate is higher.
My interest is mostly getting solar installed at home, something I can feasibly do. I don't think my city allows for residential wind turbine installs.
replyDumb question: is there a limit to how much energy we can capture? I'm imagining a wind gust blowing east to west across a city filled wind turbines. By the time the gust reaches the west end of the city, has most of its energy been captured or otherwise dissipated?
replyContrasting that with solar, where any surface area receiving direct sunlight doesn't prevent other adjacent areas from also capturing solar.
Wind power scales with the turbine area squared, and the wind velocity cubed. That means there's massive incentive to make bigger and taller turbines (windspeeds are higher the further away from the ground you are).
replyFor that reason, there is very little reason to build small wind turbines, even if there wasn't a down-stream loss of power from putting too many close together.
So there's the hobbyist side of it, but I guess it's not totally clear why that matters to the people talking about the world's power mix.
replyBut as I write that, I guess it becomes more clear to me that a personal interest in installing the technology makes one pay more attention to it elsewhere, and promote more conversations about it that get others involved.