Just ask Germany. It is a proven fiasco. There need not be further argument. The science is settled on that matter.
Prico makes a good point. Our power grid is vulnerable. This is due to regulations and obstruction by our government. Many power companies have to payout so much money in permits, inspections, compliance updates and a cadre of lawyers that they can't improve the power grid.
Not very reliable.
Either way you go you will still need to maintain, repair, troubleshoot, and replace periodically. Wind generators require high maintenance due to all the turning parts. Solar degrades about 5% each year from their 13%+ efficiency meaning the output voltage degrades over time. The batteries that are used to store such energy requires replacement every 5 years or you start to lose performance just like your cell phone battery.
Nothing is reliable now days. Green energy is not what they make it to be. If you want a solar system buy a whole bunch of glass baking dishes: add water, black food die, and saran wrap it; leave it out in the sun add two pieces of wire: one red & one black touching the water; then add in series parallel to get the voltage required. There you go you have a solar panel. If you add salt you might get more output but at the cost of your wires.
There are NO free energy sources known to mankind. It all costs because of materials and labor to build them.
To answer your question directly I would say Solar is more reliable since less moving parts. For the Wind power think of your alternator on your car how often do you replace it? As for Solar the wires inside the panels degrade over time and loose conductivity as they age. The sun beating down on anything degrades the material. Think of plastic sitting in the sun what happens?
Hope this helps.
Edit: The materials in solar panels can be anything: copper, aluminum, gold, etc. etc.
They use two dissimilar metallic materials with the most conductivity to increase the efficiency of the solar panel. Higher voltage and higher amperage.
I don't care how the electricity is generated, I care that it is done so in a safe manner without dumping their waste products into the environment.
Today we all agree that it us reasonable to ask people not to dump raw sewage into the river. And the argument that human excrement is good for plants, while true, ignores the problems for those who live downstream. Paying to clean up our own waste is not a plot to get your money, it is taking responsibility for our own actions and part of, what should be, the normal cost of doing business.
In short rather then dictating the way companies have to produce the electricity, let the market sort it out. After all the free market is supposed to be good at solving those types of issues.
And for what it is worth, the current system is not 100% reliable either. Our transmission lines from the nearby coal fired plant are above ground and occasionally affected by weather. To deal that I have a portable generator for those times the power is cut. The worst case was 4 days without power a few years ago, when some idiot sabotaged the substation and was sure glad I had something else to run my freezer on. This year I have only had to run it twice and then only for an hour. before the power was restored, I possibly could have waited it out although I had no way to know when the power would be restored.
There will be times when wind power will be not productive, but not all at the same time all around the planet. Solar voltaic cells are becoming more productive, even is less than optimal conditions. The reason why oil companies are so anxious to drill in the Arctic Ocean, even before it becomes ice free, is because the easy oil to bring to market has already been tapped. Some of the easy oil fields have long been exhausted. How reliable will fossil fuels be when they become too expensive to use even before they become completely exhausted? We will still have the sun and we will still have the wind long after oil has lost its economic value to the world economy. .... So, how reliable is oil?
John Cena, what say you now concerning tellurium?
"it is not usually necessary to make tellurium in the laboratory as it is commercially available. While there are some tellurium ores, most tellurium is made as a byproduct of copper refining. Extraction is complex since the method emplyed will depend upon what other compounds or elements are present. The first step usually involves an oxidation in the presence of sodium carbonate (soda ash). Cu2Te + Na2CO3 + 2O2 → 2CuO + Na2TeO3 + CO2
The tellurite Na2TeO3 is acidified with sulphuric acid and the tellurium precipitates out as the dioxide (leaving and selenous acid, H2SeO3, in solution). Tellurium is liberated from the dioxide by dissolving in sodium hydroxide, NaOH, and electroytic reduction.
TeO2 + 2NaOH → Na2TeO3 + H2O → Te + 2NaOH + O2" - Source: http://www.webelements.com/tellurium/
they do have a 'reserve' in the billions of years, way more than any fossil fuel. wind powered the world's navies for centuries.
Solar requires tellurium which is is rarer than gold which is why it's expensive. Wind requires a lot of land for leasing and frequent repairs which is why it's expensive.
http://www.thegwpf.org/renewables-fiasco-doldrums-clouds-bring-green-electricity-production-halt/
