A wind power and a solar power love story.

These are my friends, Mart and Cappy.  They built this lovely log cabin home by hand on top of a mountain in Upstate New York about ten years ago.  They have never been hooked up to the power grid, not ever, and have never paid an electric company power bill.

Mart and Cappy

Was it easy to do?  Well relatively so.  Has it saved them a ton of money?  Well not sure exactly, but might be near the break even point.  Those are some of the types of questions that I asked late this past summer the day I visited and took these photos.

In Cappy & Mart’s case this came about through necessity due to the site location where they decided to build their log home.  They purchased this gorgeous piece of land with a nice hardwood firewood hillside attached and where it is located on a remote hilltop, I call it a mountain; there were no neighbors and only a dirt road access off the nearest secondary road about a mile away.

Log Home

The price quote that they received from the power company was staggering to bring power poles the mile to their home site, so Cappy being a clever guy, and a local contractor, decided to do it himself.  How hard could it be?  You put up a wind turbine, no lack of wind where they are, hook up, turn on, and forget the bills, right?

Well not exactly.  They had no plan; they had no power survey, no charts and graphs or schematics.  No problem, buy a small turbine and let’s get goin’.  We do not have progress photos as the project developed, but what you see here is the latest iteration of their power plant that does the job.  This homemade system did expand over time but they do have a plan now to streamline it and put up one nice wind turbine that would look much better.

Wind turbines

They are indeed off the grid, and the contraption in their yard looks strange to visitors but they have come to love it.  They started with one small 450 watt turbine and later added two more of the same size.  They also added one small bank of photovoltaic solar panels to help keep the batteries charged up on the windless days.  They do have plans on increasing both the solar and wind energy system and perhaps in a year or two we will be able to give you an update.

So how is the life style with your own power plant?  It is as cozy as can be and they want for nothing.  They have plenty of electrical lighting, a refrigerator, television, and all the usual household appliances that anyone would have.  They cook with propane and heat with wood.  They have learned to conserve on days that the wind is low and they catch up with projects on the days that are quite breezy.

Inverter and Batteries

They do have a small gasoline powered generator for backup when Mother Nature does not provide enough free energy, but they never have gone without for any length of time.  Though they still have no neighbors yet, another hearty soul has purchased a building lot about a quarter mile away and will be building a home there also.

Generator

The photo of the wood fired boiler is how they heat both their home in winter and their domestic hot water year around.  The boiler is located outside and away from the house and the hot water runs through underground pipes to heating coils in the concrete floor of the full sized basement, and another set of coils are inside the domestic hot water heating tank.

Wood Boiler

Cappy and Mart are both full fledged volunteer firefighters and do a lot for the nearby community that they live in. Their property, though remote, is within the bounds of a town that has a college community and many very wealthy homeowners that surround a nearby lake.  The village people influence the town board and they have passed some ridiculous zoning laws restricting wind power systems, so Cappy’s wind plant expansion plans have been put on hold.

Turns out that he has decided on one turbine that would cost a few thousand dollars to replace the three small ones that do the job now, but the zoning code would require them to get a licensed state engineer to approve it and that cost would be more than the cost of the new turbine.  They are still looking at ways to make everyone happy and to get the new system installed.

All in all they are very happy living up in their little remote paradise, a small vegetable garden shown in the photo supplies nice fresh veggies in season and the largess is canned.  Note the cornfield behind is farm corn for cattle feed.

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Green Energy

So how about you, would you like to live off the grid?  We present below an advertisement for a product called Earth4Energy.  This is a system that could help you get started with your own self-sustaining power plant, and if you do make a purchase from this website we will receive a commission for the sale, and that will help us to bring you more free information on this website.

earth4energy advertisement

If you do decide to never pay an electric company bill again and build your own wind or solar energy system with Earth4Energy, please do let us know how it works out for you.  Our readers would love to hear your story.

One other thing that I should mention is that even though you might live where there is commercial power available, your own home could be off the grid and still feed extra or surplus power back to the power company grid and you would get paid by them instead of you having to fork over your hard earned cash for the utility bill.

Click on any of the Earth4Energy banners or links for more information.

To find affordable solar power as consumers you must do your homework.  Solar power has been around long enough that there are multiple options. Just like other consumer products, look in all areas of the market place.

Think of what else you purchase and follow the same rules. Look and buy from local manufactures first. By reducing the shipping costs, the price will be reduced. Find the manufactures directly and eliminate the middleman.  This is well known in almost every market. The middleman or retailer only makes money from buying low and reselling at a higher price. Their only purpose is to take your hard earned money and supplying you with a product you could find on your own with a little bit of research.

Once you are finding the inexpensive solar panels look for the product warranty availability. Most manufacturers are guaranteed for 20 to 30 years. If you do not have this warranty, be wary. A cheap find that has to be replaced in a few months or years is not a good deal.

The solar industry has been around for many years and used items are available. When Ronald Reagan had the solar panels removed from the Whitehouse, they went somewhere. Unless the panels are cracked a used panel should be sufficient to get you going green.

Best of all is the power generation. Here is a test, if you just want to feel good. Hook up a small solar unit to your house and turn off all energy devices. Watching the power meter run backwards will give you a warm feeling.

When I was a young boy there were small communities in rural areas that had small waterpower plants that fed their local residents, then the power company first bought them and hooked them into the grid and in a few years just shut them down.  Wouldn’t it be nice to reverse that trend and get millions of small scale power plants hooked back into the grid?

Solar power is affordable for the long run; think of the future when making your purchase. Then affordable solar power is yours.

There are many ways to save the environment. Every body should care but even if one person reduces their waste or conserves energy, it is a positive step forward. Of course the more people that contribute to saving our environment, the better it will be.

To conserve energy at home is the easiest. Turn off lights in rooms that are unoccupied. Keep the filters on your HVAC units clean. Lower the temperature of your water heater to 120F and wrap the unit with a blanket. Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. The planting of trees on the west side of your home will shade it during the hottest part of the day. There is more just use common sense.

Removing and reducing the dangerous toxins from your home is one of the easiest ways to save the environment. Each cleaning product must be inspected for toxic substances. The toxic chemicals must then be properly disposed of. The use of mousetraps instead of poisons will also help. Know the age of your house and determine if it might have been painted at one time with lead paint.

At work reuse common items. Just because you don’t pay for items like paperclips, envelopes, copy paper, is not a reason to be wasteful. Remember saving the environment is all of our responsibility.

Conserving water is relatively easy. Stop all leaks as soon as they appear. Wash the dishes then rinse. Do not let the water run continuously. Install a low flow showerhead.

Purchase items in bulk and avoid those products that have multiple layers of packaging. Reuse plastic bags and storage containers.

If possible use energy supplied from renewable sources like hydro, solar and wind power.

There are many ways to save the environment.  We all must do our part.

There are currently three different types of solar cells in production in today’s market place. There are the monocrystalline, polycrystalline and amorphous.  There are differences between the three and knowing the difference will help the consumers make a better choice on which type is best for them.

First there is the monocrystalline cell, which is made from a single large crystal, usually cut from one large man made ingot. This is difficult to handle and if broken then the whole cell has to be replaced. Since it is one piece there is no resistance thus being the most efficient. It is even efficient in low light conditions.  This cell has a major draw back of being the most expensive to manufacture.

Second there is the polycrystalline cell, which is made from many small blocks. This is less expensive to manufacture since it is smaller and easier to handle. Connecting all the cells together does reduce the efficiency but not a great deal.

These first two are the most common and most efficient at about 33%. In addition with the high cost of production, it is not possible now to see a further reduction in the cost, which is about $1 US per watt.

The last is amorphous cell. This is sometimes referred to a thin layer or second generation. This has good and bad to it.  This cell is the cheapest to manufacture thus being the least expensive to purchase but also the least efficient.

There are other types of solar energy panels but for photovoltaics these three different types of solar cells will be your choices for your solar power system.

With the first two using silicon and the last one using cadmium or copper, the price of the raw materials will be the driving cost in finished cost of the cells. Make your choice a wise one just remember if you chose the thin cell it will take more of them to produce the same amount of energy as the silicon based cells.

Investment in renewable energy stocks is a move that not only will help our world have the needed energy resources the future needs, but also could make the investor money. The World Economic Forum published a positive statement on January 29, 2009. “Clean energy opportunities have the potential to generate significant economic returns. The report shows that even after a tumultuous 2008, an index of the world’s 90 leading clean energy companies had a five-year compound annualized return of almost 10%, unmatched by the world’s major stock indices.” This is a positive trend, which is the future of the world’s energy supply and well worth watching.

A good example of this trend is First Solar Inc. Their fourth quarter and fiscal year end results were reported with positive results. Fourth Quarter results were at $433.7 million, which is a rise from the third quarter of 2008 and fourth quarter results in 2007, of $348.7 million and $200.8 million respectively.  With revenue growth at over double in the past year from $504.0 million in 2007 to $1,246.3 million in 2008, this company is showing the way of the future and that they make money. In addition, First Solar broke the $1 per watt price barrier in the Fourth quarter of 2008. They now can manufacture their solar modules to have a 98 cents per watt cost by reducing their cost in the manufacturing process.

Solar power expert and columnist J. Peter Lynch wrote in his latest column that, “Investors can expect very erratic movements in the solar stocks until the overall market volatility starts to get back to the normal range.” “The next phase of development of the solar industry is the same phase that all new industries went through, autos, semiconductors, computers etc. it is the consolidation and shake out phase.” With this in mind, I know the renewable energy suppliers will come out on top after this recession as long as their business plan is solid. The renewable energy stocks are an investment in the future, for the future.

This is not a recommendation to invest in any particular funds or products and we do not give investment advice. This article is to promote awareness of renewable energy stocks.

The decision to have a solar energy installation at your home or business is a wise one. Many factors need to be considered before you proceed. How much will it cost?  How large of a solar unit is needed to supply all of your energy needs? Who is qualified to install it? Do you need to be connected to the local grid? ? How long before you recuperate the cost?

The cost of your solar system will be determined by the amount of power you wish to generate and where you are located.  The solar modules you install will be about 40 to 50% of your overall cost. In 2003 the cost per kWt was between $8000 and $12000 per kWp installed. These cost have come down some with the development and advances of thin film cells but this is just to give you a rough idea. For a firm cost, your local market will decide the actual price. As for how large of a unit you would need depends on your power consumption and where you live. Look at your past electrical bills over the past few years and you will have a good idea of your power consumption. The sun’s rays also are more intense the closer you are to the equator. A good example is a solar cell that is located in Southern California can produce twice the power of a solar cell placed in Northern Germany.

Remember only certified licensed installers can legally install your systems. Another reason to get a licensed installer is that all states but Arkansas has an incentive program for the proper installation and use of solar energy.

Some of the incentive programs offered by states require that your solar power be connected to the local grid. Before you decide on this matter, check with your states program and know your power consumption and the forecasted power output of your new system.

Most homeowners can recuperate the cost of the solar power installation in about 20 years. Know your system and do your research to help you decide.

Solar energy has been around since the first sun was born. On earth solar power has been used for many purposes for years. This is been by placing panels on structures to absorb the energy of the sun and converting this energy to electricity. But the future for solar energy is in space.

Without an atmosphere to penetrate, the full tremendous amount of energy from the sun could be harnessed. The worlds space agencies have known about and utilized this concept since almost the beginning of man’s venture into space. It has powered spacecraft that are exploring the universe, powering satellites and fueling the power needs of the Hubble Telescope.  The next step would be to establish solar collectors in space and send that energy back to earth for utilization as a renewable, powerful energy source.

This concept was first imagined and studied by NASA back in the 1970’s. It was rejected due to the high cost and lack of technology to make it efficient. But it was recently announced that NASA is studying this concept again. A Space-Based Solar Collector could be in the near future as soon as 2015.

A Sun Tower is now being considered that could reach 22 miles in length with pairs of 100 to 200 meter diameter solar collectors attached to the structure. From a geosynchronous orbit, this renewable energy source has the potential to collect and supply the earth’s inhabitants with over a billion watts of power.

We have the technology to promote the future of Solar Energy.  All that is needed is the political will, backing and funding of the governments of the world to do so. This is an endless power supply, even after all the oil is gone, solar power will be there.