You are going to find out the same thing I found out in college. Using wind and/or solar to charge batteries(especially lead acid batteries) is an utter waste of time. there is too much loss (ie efficiency is poor) in the charging and draining process in lead acid batteries. In short, they suck. They suck real bad. They also don’t last very long when you discharge them very deeply very frequently. They are designed to be used only a little bit and not very often.
lead acid is too inefficent and photovoltaics make too little electricity.
The concept will never go anywhere until batteries are a thousand times more efficient and photovoltaics put out a thousand times more juice. And no, I’m not exaggerating the numbers.
Bingo!
The concept will never go anywhere until batteries are a thousand times more efficient
There are a couple of possible ways to do that (carbon nano tubes for one), but the the danger of a cascade type of failure and catastrophic instant energy release would be very bad to say the least.
The concept will never go anywhere until batteries are a thousand times more efficient and photovoltaics put out a thousand times more juice. And no, I’m not exaggerating the numbers.
Yes, you are exaggerating the numbers. A flooded lead acid battery (one with "caps" that you can add water to) charge at about 90% efficiency, absorbed glass mat (AGM) charge at about 95% efficiency. I'd like to see you calculate how a ~90% efficient device can become 1000 times more efficient.
Consumer photovoltaic panels are in the neighborhood of 15% efficient in converting sunlight into electricity. The average solar insolation (total energy reaching the earth's surface) is about 1000w/m^2. My 10' x 10' array can produce ~1kw for ~5 hours per day. Not alot but it is something. If everyone had their roof covered in them, there might not be a reason to import oil from 6th century cavemen that would love nothing more than to slice your head from your neck or from turd world dictators that speak spanish.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a proponent of "renewable" energy at all, I'm more of a slash-and-burn oil burner that enjoys going fast, cold air in the summer and hot air in the winter but spreading falsehoods about solar's capabilities is bull. Think about it this way, the more people that spend their money on those power sources, the more of the other there is for us.
Cheers
Maybe just a wee bit ...