Solar vs. windgenerator

Discussions about Cape Dory, Intrepid and Robinhood sailboats and how we use them. Got questions? Have answers? Provide them here.

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Larry DeMers
Posts: 124
Joined: Feb 5th, '05, 19:43
Location: DeLaMer
CD30c #283
Lake Superior

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Post by Larry DeMers »

Russell wrote:Actually Larry, solar panels put out more in the caribbean then they do up north. Closer to the sun and more sunny days.
I am getting around 65-70 W out of the 80 W Kyocera that I have. I suspect that it would reach 80W by going not too far south of here. I can believe that I would see the full rated 6.6 A output in the Caribb. though. Although there is one odd fact about solar panels that would actually take away some of this expected gain due to more/hotter sun and longer and more days that are clear. That is heat . The output of a solar panel is negatively affected by heat at the silicon level. A hotter sun will actually reduce the output that the panel would have without the heat problem. Seems that some form of heat sinking would be of help here.

The reason that I think that wind generators would also be a good bet down there, is that the winds don't die off at night, like they do up here. I understand that they tend to increase if anything. The winds run in the mid 20's to 30 much of the time, and that is the sweetspot with these smaller marine generators (Kiss, Air-X Marine). Their output curve will be in the 20 -30 amp range, and that is good power to make water with, or charge the banks up.


Cheers,
Larry DeMers
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