Slashdot Mirror

I really enjoy both of these, some good inspiration (and a lot of perspiration), both are heavy into DIY.....

You got to see some of the home made inventions, just too cool. You can see what having an itch to scratch, a pile of junk and a welder will bring you. A lot of it results in some practical applications, some decent inventions have been showcased. I get the dead trees version, every page I am going NEAT! I want one! etc...

Farmshow magazine

This one is for alternative power, a very good site, Home Power magazine, chock fulla alternative energy products, examples, troubleshooting, resources, etc.

http://www.homepower.com/ Covers various forms of renewable energy, mainly for the home with a few businesses. The current issue is always freely downloadable in PDF format, if you register(free). http://www.homepower.com/files/midnight.pdf Is an article on a home sized UPS you can build yourself.

http://www.homepower.com/ Covers various forms of renewable energy, mainly for the home with a few businesses. The current issue is always freely downloadable in PDF format, if you register(free). http://www.homepower.com/files/midnight.pdf Is an article on a home sized UPS you can build yourself.

Here is one example of a DC-input ATX power supply. It uses 24V in, so it's up to you how you want to mix'n'match utility AC and alternate DC sources. For more general info along those lines, check out Home Power.

Then your wait is over. From the Renewable Energy Myths Debunked article at homepower.com:

Myth: It takes more energy to build PVs than they can ever produce.

Some skeptics of solar energy claim that it takes more energy to make a photovoltaic module (PV) than it can ever produce in its lifetime. The truth is that PVs typically recoup their embodied energy in two to four years. According to an article published by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), today's single and multicrystalline modules have an energy payback of about four years, and thin-film modules about two years.

Most PV modules in the field are made from hyper-pure crystalline silicon. Purifying and crystallizing the silicon consumes the most energy in making these PVs. Thin-film PVs are made from considerably less semiconductor material, and therefore have less embodied energy in them. Most of the energy consumed is in the thin-film surface. The aluminum frame on any PV accounts for about six months of its payback time.

Solar energy is an amazing technology considering that PVs go on to produce clean, pollution-free energy for at least 25 to 30 years after they have achieved payback. For more information on energy payback, see the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Web site (www.nrel.gov) and Karl Knapp & Theresa Jester's article titled "MPV Payback" in HP80.

I suggest you visit:

www.homepower.com

Solar power is very real, and many people already use it. Is it expensive? Yeah, for example a solar system to generate enough power for the average home would cost anywhere from $20k to $30k. Some states have to reimburse you for half your cost though - so immediately, you're down to $10k or $15k. Then, imagine that costing you about what a car payment would be for 5 years. Now imagine having that car payment *instead* of a utility bill. Now even better, imagine being paid off in 5 years - and then the panels and setup usually last 30 years. So, that equals 25 years of FREE energy. Most of these homes are still plugged into the grid so that at night they can either use the grid or batteries, while pumping excess onto the grid during the day to the power company has to buy that from you to power other homes in your area. Solar is great, and with rising natural gas costs, it's going to spread like a wildfire from global warming...

Hard to imagine people are still spreading this dis-information. Modern solar panels start producing more energy than they consumed for their manufacture within 2-4 years depending on where they are installed.

Solar Myths

The ROI (for retail and manufacture cost) and the Enviromental impact of production is addressed.

Granted the source is an RE magazine, but they do list references on some of the studies if you want to follow up.

Ok, this really got me enthousiastic. This guy is truly a hydroelectric hacker. Check out those system charts, amazing!

Battery system will add a bit to the cost (but still might be worthwhile for keeping "absolutely needed" systems up (refrigerator)). But unlike solar, rivers run always. You can start without it and power your house, sending extra to the grid and making money on it.

But note that a Rolls 375AH battery will cost you $600-$700 and you'll want a few of those. Plus charging systems for them. And replacing them every 5-8 years. (tho fuel cell systems are expected to work for this use within 3-5 years).

HomePower Magazine is online and in libraries and just had something (Feb? March?) on home hydro. It's often used with creeks. You can also buy their entire archives on CD.

If you need pressure, but don't think your river has it, note that running water into a large pipe and getting smaller makes pressure enough to turn things.

The easiest way to handle it is with a, er, hill. Divert some of the water off through pipes, let it drop, let it hit your generator and route it back to the river. Filters and cats at the top keep fish out.

Battery system will add a bit to the cost (but still might be worthwhile for keeping "absolutely needed" systems up (refrigerator)). But unlike solar, rivers run always. You can start without it and power your house, sending extra to the grid and making money on it.

But note that a Rolls 375AH battery will cost you $600-$700 and you'll want a few of those. Plus charging systems for them. And replacing them every 5-8 years. (tho fuel cell systems are expected to work for this use within 3-5 years).

HomePower Magazine is online and in libraries and just had something (Feb? March?) on home hydro. It's often used with creeks. You can also buy their entire archives on CD.

If you need pressure, but don't think your river has it, note that running water into a large pipe and getting smaller makes pressure enough to turn things.

The easiest way to handle it is with a, er, hill. Divert some of the water off through pipes, let it drop, let it hit your generator and route it back to the river. Filters and cats at the top keep fish out.

I'm a big fan of Home Power magazine. They focus more on solar solutions, but you'll catch an occasional article on hydro. Best part is you can download the current issue for free (after registration).

I'm a big fan of Home Power magazine. They focus more on solar solutions, but you'll catch an occasional article on hydro. Best part is you can download the current issue for free (after registration).

Go for it. Be green and poor, all at the same time!

I want to see something along the scale of a Solar powered ammonia-cycle ice maker (pdf)

Summary : Ammonia bonded to salt crystals in a closed system is driven off by the heat from a solar reflector, condensed to liquid via a coil of pipe in a drum of water and stored in pressure vessel in an insulated box. Remove the heat, and the ammonia liquid boils off and is recombined with the salt, and can freeze about 10lbs of ice in every 3-4 hour cycle.

This has the advantage over the evaporative system in that it can go to considerably below freezing. Other people are working on something that has a "hot end" that can be heated above a fire, and a "cold end" that can be later inserted into an icebox to produce the same general effect.

You're gonna have to do a little legwork, but this month's Dwell magazine had a short article on an apartment building that was using amorphous thin-film panels as cladding. I'm pretty sure i've seen that magazine at Lowe's if you want to pick up a copy. It has some pretty off-the-wall cool modern designs, too. It also has some (think corrugated steel cube) that would probably get you lynched by your neighbors.

It's not gonna be as easy as getting new vinyl siding installed-- you're probably going to have to find a specialist contractor and figure out where to order the stuff. You'll probably have an easier time if you live somewhere like California, where these things are more popular. I'm in Indiana, so I'm fully expecting to be doing this sort of stuff entirely on my own.

homepower.com might be some help in getting started.

It's odd that you're worried about the cost of batteries but not of the panels. As a point of reference a recent issue of home power, HomePower.com shows 3 100W panels for $1680 while a 105AH battery is only $400.

The solar panels are going to be easily thousands of dollars. By spending some money on batteries you'll be able to do away with a bunch of extra panels which is going to save more in the long run and will allow you to cool in the evening or on a cloudy day to boot. Still the cheapest is going to be all the tricks you can use to reduce the need for AC like shade, swamp coolers and such.

Try this. Direct refrigeration from the sun - and it doesn't even use salt water and ammonia.

If you just want cooling (er, you can also get heating with this) and you have the property, it's even easier. Dig a buncha ditches and lay some pipe. You combine these inlets with a decent solar chimney and you have a completely "passive" (ie no machine moving parts, no electricity needed) means of circulating 60 degree air throughout the house.

Oh, and here's a DIY solar ice maker - just for the heck of it.

Feel free to message me about this. Solar energy is something of an avocation of mine.

Break the circuit when you don't need the cooling. (Any EEs want to comment on if this can damage the solar cells?)

For a typical panel you will not have any trouble if you just leave it out in the sun open-circuited. However, if you parallel several of them and don't use anti-backflow diodes, you can dump the power of one or more back through the one with the lowest voltage (typically the hottest). This can lead to thermal runaway (voltage drops with temperature) and fire. Ergo, anti-backflow diodes are one of the most basic elements of a properly designed solar system using parallel panels.

Read Home Power and you'll know this too.

Or even more articles.

Hydrogen gets complicated!

Hydrogen articles

Try this....

looks interesting....

www.homepower.com/files/fuelcell.pdf

Speaking of which, being the incessent hacker, I'd like to optimize the heck out of my energy systems' costs

Naw, I wasn't. I meant solar panels in general, not specifically Astropower ones. However, see my post in reply.

Incidentally, the most common reasons for solar panels failing include the ones you mentioned. Extreme weather (atypical, 100-year hailstorms for example, and hurricanes) are probably the #1 cause of unrepairable damage... solar panels typically stay in use (though often with multiple owners) until they are physically destroyed.

I recommend Home Power Magazine if you are interested in this sort of thing - they are the experts in real-world implementation.

Check out http://www.homepower.com/. Specifically, the article "Off-Grid Luxury", http://www.homepower.com/files/HP98_14.pdf.

Home Power is primarily concerned with photovoltaics, but have articles on a wide range of home power alternatives. Eachs article has a schematic for the system they're presenting. This is what I want to do. I don't want to pay the Man anymore. I don't want to damage the environment, but I don't want to have it damage me.

Check out http://www.homepower.com/. Specifically, the article "Off-Grid Luxury", http://www.homepower.com/files/HP98_14.pdf.

Home Power is primarily concerned with photovoltaics, but have articles on a wide range of home power alternatives. Eachs article has a schematic for the system they're presenting. This is what I want to do. I don't want to pay the Man anymore. I don't want to damage the environment, but I don't want to have it damage me.

It makes little economic sense to build a solar generation plant on the moon, when we can do the same here on Earth. If we assume a power requirement of 2000 watts/person (quoted from the article), it should be possible to meet this requirement with only 630 square feet of PV panels per person (see calculations and references below). This is not an unreasonably large land area when compared with the 2.8 hectares per person required for food production. The real obstacle to widespread PV deployment is not a shortage of land, but the cost of PV equipment (panels and energy storage). Why would we build it on the moon? This would only make it more expensive.

The idea of using microwave satellite relays to distribute the power may have some merit. This would solve the issue of energy storage if we could transmit power to the other side of the world.

Today's commercially available PV panels are about 15% efficient. Their output rating is based on an irradiance of 1000w/m^2. This means one square meter of PV panels has a rated output of about 150 watts. The average insolation in the united states is about 5.5 sun hours. The average daily energy produced by a PV array is the product of it's rated power and the insolation. This means a square meter of PV panels will produce on average 825 watt hours/day (150 * 5.5). Given the value of 2000 watts/person and multiply by the number of hours in a day, you get an energy requirement of 48 kilowatt hours/day (2000*24). Take the this energy requirement and divide by the energy produced by a square meter of PV panels to get the number of square meters required: 48000 / 825 = 58 m^2 or 626 square feet.

Please don't reply with the argument that it takes more energy to produce a solar module than it will produce in its lifetime without reading the this.

It's easier to get forgiveness than permission; go guerrilla.

http://www.homepower.com/files/pvpayback.pdf

Replying to yer subject: because the thought of isolationism ( giving-up on cooperation ) vs cooperation/coopetition ( out-waiting incooperation ) is something I'm gonna have to think about fer awhile...

Home Power Magazine

Sounds like you want to read Home Power magazine. Lots of home-scale power projects, and more groovy tech than you can shake a stick at.

We wouldn't have these kinds of problems if everyone produced their own power. I would think geeks, of all people, would be into having self-generated electricity. Check out Home Power Magazine Solar Guerrillas to see how it can be done, even in urban areas.

Home Power Magazine

Home power

is a better solution...

I have my cabin on the lake heated and powered without buying heatoil or electricity... and it's in northern michigan.

you can do it. and you can do it now. you just need to have a desire that outweighs the convience of simply paying a bill.

One (what this story started as) is a diesel conversion kit that you install on your car - you still have a diesel tank that you must fill (much less often), and you add another tank with fry grease. You start the car/truck on reg. diesel (or biodiesel if you're so inclined). Once the engine is warm, you flip a valve, and you will be them pumping SVO as they call it - Straight Vegetable Oil - to your injectors. The SVO must be warmed to flow properly through your fuel system and into the injectors. Running vegetable oil into a diesel engine was designed before running petro-oil into a diesel engine. Not a very new concept, although the people doing this have been on the fringe.

The other, Thermal Depolymerization, is a relatively new process (more precisely, an old process that has recently been improved to make it closer to cost-effective) that takes anything with hydrocarbons, and breaks the molecules down into components, including water, whatever non-hydrocarbon stuff was in the input, and an oil that can be re-distilled into whatever product you want (gasoline, diesel, etc).

There is a third process not directly mentioned here, but the process of making biodiesel. This is accomplished with a vat of fry oil, some lye, some methanol, a mixing apparatus, and time. You mix the stuff up, and get some glycerin, and regular diesel that you can put in your fuel tank for your car, truck, farm tractor, diesel generator, etc. The article I linked says the guy gets about 85% diesel and 15% glycerin from his fry oil, and if he gets the oil for free, the other ingredients work out to 54 cents a gallon, plus his time.

Of course, the majority of us with our gasoline engines, are still stuck with petroleum coming out of the ground, or maybe in the future from the Thermal Depolymerization process.

These guys have been at it for quite some time. Also has appeared now and again in Home Power Magazine....

Not that I'm an expert, but when did that ever stop a post...

What about biodiesel? Home Power magazine just ran an article on it. Seems like it would be a good way to introduce renewable energy into transportation without a lot of overhead. It stores the same as regular diesel and runs in unmodified diesel engines.

It is, in fact, the high manufacturing energy costs of refinied silicon combined with the fact that monocrystalline PV cells are indirect absorbers of photons in the visible spectrum (thus they have to be thick, using a lot of the refinied silicon) that makes PV not terribly economical right now. It takes about 300kWh per kilogram to refine silicon to the point it is usable for PV cells. The energy costs to manufacture take about 2 years to pay back.

If you are near the grid, it doesn't pay to buy PV as opposed to invest the money. But you might have values (like environmental concerns) that motivate you to do the one ahead of the other (opportunity cost to you economists).

Also, if you are more 1/2 mile from the grid, PV is much cheaper than running a line.

As for hazardous waste in manufacture, not for the crystalline silicon cells. It is the thin-film cells (including amorphous silicon) that use highly reactive gasses (like silane).

Solar is ready today to supply large parts of our energy cleanly and economically. The remaining problems are ecnomies of scale in the maufacture and thus price. As oil prices climb (which they will) it will become more and more feasible to turn to solar.

Solar won't easily do 100% of our electricty needs. The sun isn't available all the time. But it can do much. And it will. Check out Home Power Magazine. I wish it were editorially more willing to embrace a mass-marketing, consumer culture version of solar power, instead on insisting on a sort of home-grown, hemp-wearing, almost neo-hippie approach (just because I think success will only come when people strut their PV arrays like they do their three-season porches and their luxury cars), but the magazine provides good, hard information on doing renewable energy at home, right now, today.

Batteries. They are the weak link. If you want to live off grid, batteries are necessary, and they are heavy, toxic, expensive, and inefficient. But if you are willing to do grid-intertie, you can do your good and not worry about cloudy days or the expense of batteries.

First of all, whoever told you that "it takes more energy to manufacture one than they ever generate in their useful life" was incorrect.

Perhaps you should try to figure out if it is because that person needs education, or because (s)he has a vested interest in deceiving you.

Second, the point of solar panels is not always lifetime efficiency anyway, it is often control of power generation by the person(s) needing the power - intelligent people act to secure the resources they need to survive, and the power grid (in California, at least) is not reliable and cannot be secured by consumers.

There is a wealth of data available online from the IPP and Sandia that will refute your claim. Or you could directly contact a vendor such as Siemens (German) or AstroPower (Delaware, USA).

The proposed tax is simply the latest move in the long-running war between the centralised dirty energy producers (championed by GWB and Cheney, among others) and the promoters of distributed clean renewable energy production (a grassroots movement championed principally by the Home Power crew).

This war is primarily being fought in and around California; mostly because of the high availability of sunshine and engineering talent in that area. The recent fake energy crisis that the Enron crowd purposely created was the most effective offensive in the same war so far.

Hopefully, the decentralized nature of grassroots opposition will prevent the current administration's attempt to crush distributed renewable energy producers. The "Solar Guerilla" movement was started for just this reason.

This is the same reason I haven't had solar cells installed on my house. It would take 30 years for the savings to balance the cost, and the cells are rated for only 20 years before they need to be replaced.

Actually, from what I've read, the RoI on solar panels is closer to 20 years or even under. And while solar cells are rated for only 20 years usually, many of them will last over 25 or more when treated well. (I'm going from anecdotal eveidence on mailing lists, magazine articles in Home Power, and the like.)

That just is not true. Lead acid batteries are completely recycleable and most places in the USA REQUIRE them to be recycled when disposed of.

Solar panels are typically guaranteed for 20-30 years, and generally are productive for much beyond that. I have seen no evidence to indicate there is any particularly probelms with disposal afterwards.

Home Power Magazine has some references to studies on teh energy, environmental, and financial aspects of solar panel production showing that these types of statements, while worth investigating, are not significant problems.

Now as for me, I am pretty pro-nuke, but distributed solar is certainly a good way to go. Of course the best choice would be to not waste the energy in the first place - you know, install some compact flourescent and LED lights around the house, and turn down the AC once in a while...

One thing I've often wondered is whether a typical solar cell produces more energy in its lifetime than it takes to manufacture it?

I'm sorry I can't cite a reference, but it was either Home Power magazine or the US Department of Engergy that claimed solar cells pay for their energy (in terms of CO2 emissions) after 2-5 years of use, depending on location. 2 closer to the US Southwest, 5 closer to the Canadian border.

You need one of these my friend. Don't forget our chums at home power magazine for other energy related goodies and reviews.

Diesel engines can run on a variety of (plant-extracted) oils without any/much modifications to the engine.

People should concentrate on using solar power, wind energy,

Solar = destroy you planet faster... The process for making silicon solar cells is very very VERY nasty and pollutes worse than dumping raw gasoline directly into a lake (Which by the way 1 gallon of gasoline will pollute 1,000,000 gallons of water to undrinkable levels) as for wind power, you need to get the idiots and morons who sit on boards of light and power, and city/county/state governments to pull their heads out of their butts long enough so that you dont have to spend a year fighting to get a tower erected to put your windmill up and THEN spend another year getting permission to tie into the electrical grid so that the excess power you create goes to benefit mankind.

until people start voting in smart politicians we will be doomed that way.... and I have never EVER met a politican that wasn't as dumb as a stump, but though he was a genius...

The only other resourse is to do gurella alternative power... you just do it and hook up without permission or permits... something that is happening quite alot lately... just pick up a copy of home power magazine.. or look at their website here

and you can make your own high efficiency wind power generation systems from crap and junk from here

but the absolute best thing to do is to figure out how to reduce consumption.. over-insulate your home.. change all lighting to compact flouresent... buy all appliances that are energy star compliant and at the very top of the efficiency graph. (Note: instead of spending $45,000.00 onm your beloved yukon that get's 4-12 miles per gallon... buy an aztek WITHOUT 4wd that get's on average 25-27 Miles per gallon if you need big for carrying things... or get a honda insight for the highest fuel efficiency.)

I agree, america = spend BIG and screw everyone else.. I live here.. I watch the masses of idiots who refuse to obey the speed limits and further reduce the MPG of their gas guzzlers, still throw trash out the windows and leave their homes with every light in the house on. It wont change until it's required, or energy gest's so expensive that it forces people to change... as they will not change willingly it must be forced.

If you're not, there are plenty of replies already here for you - get a cheap horribly polluting inefficient genset, run your RV motor all the time, etc. More gasoline = more dollars for Wahabi = more terrorist actions by Islamic fundies, but who cares as long as you've got Microsoft Solitaire?

OK, I topped out my own irony-o-meter on that one. But I get pretty tired of the /. crowd's disregard for anything beyond immediate gratification, sorry.

Anyway, if you want efficiency, and you're handy, check out Home Power Magazine. The current edition has an article on choosing a laptop for low power consumption.

In your RV, you can use a standard laptop car power adapter, or you can build your own. Both my laptops run on DC (they have transformers and converters built into a pod in the middle of the power cord) and although they use odd voltages (14.5 VDC or something like that) I was able to get a DC/DC converter at the local ham radio store.

I have heard that some laptops do the AC/DC conversion internally, so if you have one of those you'll either have to crack the case open and add a connector or you'll need to sacrifice a battery pack to make a "fake battery" containing a simple voltage regulator circuit or else just a jack that you can connect an external PS to.

If you go the "fake battery" route don't be fazed by all those crazy connection points on your LIon battery pack - all but two of them are usually for charging the battery (to equally distribute the charge to all the cells) so you don't have to hook those up - just the two off by themselves, and you can use a cheap $20 multimeter to find polarity off a good pack.

Oh, and be careful if you dissect a battery pack, and dispose of the cells properly. Supposedly some of the laptop cells can blow up if you short 'em out (not sure if I believe that, but better safe than sorry).

Good luck!

Would like to mod that up.

Yes, set a good example. You don't have to "effect larger changes to policy and science". Start making a difference at home. Get yourself off the grid, whether it's geothermal or solar and wind. Thoroughly insulate with the right materials. Support your local farms by buying their products. Eat less industrially produced meat. Drive less. Use Natural Biological Pest Controls. Expand on this list.

Then teach your kids, they are our future.

Yes, these things are harder than just handing over some money to a cause and continuing on as always. But starting at home has a greater impact. Setting an example has a greater impact. You will feel so much better by doing something. And of course we can't all just donate money while continuing to cause the problems in the first place. What good does that do?

Probably offtopic but I like the subject.

You have some valid concerns. If you are working hard at a career and trying to make ends meet, then it can be difficult to have free time to pursue beliefs that appear to be non-profitable (hobbies).

In some ways, it seems that land is a priviledge that not enough of us seem to have. If you own land, you have a gift and shelter that gives you more choices for a lifestyle.

There are a lot of places to get "undeveloped land for sale". However you have to get water, gas, electricity, food, medical, dental, auto, mail, phone, laundry.. etc.. -- the benefits of modern society. My old boss got fed up with the suburbs and bought lots of acres of redwood land (using a loan), would spend time each week building a house on it, and loves it up there.
Homepower magazine often has similar stories of people who want to do their own thing.

I've been reading an article called the 13 steps to freedom and it looks interesting:
1. No unimportant things
2. Don't borrow
3. No animals
4. No expensive autos
5. No useless toys
6. Downsize
7. No kids (if possible)
8. No full-time job
9. Avoid complicated systems (I interpreted)
10. No clocks, radios, phones, TVs
11. Cherish every moment
12. Marry a best friend
13. Avoid being someone else's notion of success

If you go to any park, you can see what the animals are doing all day long.. trying to survive. That's how they got there and it's what they're good at (maybe even their destiny). Why should humans be any different? It would take a truly smart individual to transcend survival.

If anybody is interested in this kind of tech for doit yourself applications, I found this nifty guide
build you own fuels cell at homepower mag.

I don't post often but when I read the headline of this topic, I wanted to add my two cents. After reading the article and everyone's posts (most posts being irreverent or poop-joke related) I have finished another chapter on my book of human ignorance.

As U.S. citizens, we live in a wasteful society of throw-away everything and unlimited (we think) natural resources. When you go home tonight, make a note of how many lights you have on in your house. If you live alone, this will be a good test to see how much energy you use, if you have family members, roommates, etc you can also monitor the total energy consumption in your house. OK, so you got five lights on and you are the only one home. Now add the energy used to power your fridge, microwave, water heater, stereo, dishwasher, TV, computer(s), aquarium, Nintendo, space heater, furnace, the list goes on. Are all these items 100% necessary? of course, this America and we demand convenience 24/7.

I am no better than you, I waste energy and it bugs me to go outside and watch the power meter spinning like a twirling dervish when I got the guys over for band practice. But I am aware of what I use and I do my best to conserve energy. I live in the NW US and we have lots of hydro-electric power plants on the Columbia, I am not a save-the-salmon radical but I don't want to see all the changes we make on the environment in the name of power generation to go waste on every single light in my house. If there is a new technology to limit energy use, I am all for it. In fact I have a few solar panels and few devices (lights & a TV) that I can use with my "free" power. In our lifetime, home-based power plants (natural gas-hydrogen based fuel cells, PV, wind power, etc) will become popular and necessary in many highly populated areas. Third world countries need this technology now since its price is low and their living conditions are so medieval compared to ours that any change for them is better than nothing. Our turn is coming soon.

My fifteen minutes are up. Here are some other links on energy-related websites/products.

Home Power Magazine

Jade Mountain Alternative Energy Devices

So, what's stopping you?

Home Power magazine is a good place to start for ideas and things.

And if you come up with something that runs a net surplus, sell the power back to your local government mandated utility. Most government grants of monopoly for electrical power include a requirement that the utility buy back what you as a private individual produce.

Not all, you can be sure, but HomePower has good information sources on that.

You could, of course, spend a decade lobying governments and buying influence with the politicians, but that would just make you another Enron. It's much more efficient to just build it yourself.

Bob-