Hello,
How are you?

Do wind turbines also have solar panels ?

I was discussing this topic with my husband and we disagreed. He said no, I said yes.

Would you be so kind to educate us? Thank you,

Norma

Bob's Answer:
Looks like your husband wins this one, Norma. Wind turbines do not usually have solar panels on board. The available area for panels on a turbine is relatively small, and the nacelle which holds the generator on top turns to face the wind, so much of the time it is not facing the sun.

Solar panels need a large surface area to produce a significant amount of power. It would take about eight acres of panels to provide the same amount of electricity as one of the wind turbines in the newest MGE wind facility.

Because of this relatively large footprint, putting the solar panels on the roofs of existing homes and businesses is a better use of space and resources.

Hi Bob,

When I signed up I was actually shocked at how inexpensive it was to get all my power from renewable sources. Only 1 cent per kilowatt extra? Is this realistic?

Would you be able to supply all of your customers with renewable energy by raising the overall price by 1 cent per kilowatt or would you start running into problems? What hurtles are there to overcome to be able to supply 100% of your customers with 100% renewable power?

Thanks,
Luke

Bob's Answer:
Luke, you are right – the extra cost for renewable energy has come down a lot since we started selling wind power in 1999. Two of the reasons are that more power is being generated by larger, more efficient wind turbines, and that higher fossil fuel prices have helped reduce the cost difference.

Last year MGE added a large quantity of renewable energy from four new wind farms in Wisconsin and Iowa as well as from some local solar installations. Much of this additional power is already being purchased, but we still have enough to serve thousands more green power customers (tell your friends and neighbors).

But even with this increased green generation capacity, MGE does not have nearly enough renewable capacity to provide 100% green power to all our customers. Converting entirely to renewable energy would require solving a number of difficult problems such as:
• How to store enough power to cover all of our electric needs when there is not sufficient wind or sunshine for generation. Biofuels could help with this, but they require a lot of land and usually need non-renewable inputs such as fertilizer and diesel fuel to produce.
• Where to find enough useable land with good wind speeds or solar access to build a very large quantity of facilities.
• Where to get the huge amount of money that would be needed to build enough renewable capacity to replace the existing generation facilities along with enough extra transmission lines to get the power from where it is generated to where it is needed.

The good news is that we are making great strides in providing more renewable power, and that MGE is committed to finding a way to provide renewable energy for every customer who wants to purchase it.