Adding Solar Power to Wind Farms

Good news.  According to the Star Tribune (Energy firm to put solar array near wind farms ), a company called Ecos Energy is building solar power arrays near wind farms in Slayton, Minnesota. 

This is still experimental, but it appears to be an ingenious idea.  The wind blows less in the summer and more at night.  The sun shines more in the summer and not at all at night.  A big problem with both wind and solar power is that power generation is variable since it depends on how much the wind is blowing or the sun is shining. Backup generation is always required for those times when the renewable power source isn’t producing enough.  Combining these technologies should even out many of the fluctuations.  Of course, there will still be times when neither the wind nor the sun is providing a good energy source, but these should occur less frequently than with either technology alone.

Possibly even more important, combining these two technologies allows the power producers to leverage their investment in connections to the power grid.  These are expensive to build and require a time-consuming and difficult process to obtain permits and rights of way.

Ideally, battery technology would allow wind and solar generators to store energy when an excess of power is being produced and release it when there is not enough.  However, cost-effective batteries of sufficient capacity to accomplish that do not exist.  Until they are developed, combining technologies like solar and wind generations seems like a great idea.  Both technologies are becoming less costly and more efficient.  We need them for a clean-energy future.  Wish these projects success.