| By :
Roger Brown
Homemade energy is within reach of the average person. Combining winds and solar technologies in one package is an emerging trend in renewable energy. All individual renewable energy sources need to be viewed as part of an integrated whole - not separate competing systems. In fact, jointly considering winds and solar can be a powerful way to start down the road toward personal energy independence. In no way do you have to be an expert electrician to start offsetting some or all of the power you buy from your power company. It does help though, to know upfront what you want to do with the power you make. There are a number of ways to make the most out of both of these renewable energy technologies. Battery banks can be charged by both. Also, wind and solar can both power individual pieces of equipment such as irrigation pumps and water heaters. Ultimately, all any of these renewable energy power systems can do is make electricity for use now or to be stored for use in the future. Thereafter the greater the number of power generation technologies you can employ though, the more likely you can eventually leave off the fossil fuel powered electricity grid. These are the 2 most often used ways to take advantage of winds and solar energy: 1. Hybrid - both winds and solar combined in one device 2. Parallel systems - separate standalone devices Hybrid energy generation systems that employ both winds and solar can be used to exploit the benefits of both. Wind generators can make and keep electricity stored when the sun isn't shining - actually, that is when most of the wind is often most available. Then, when the sun comes back out, solar panels collect the sun's rays and convert them to electricity. The second alternative is to just install separate renewable systems. These devices would operate in parallel and therefore not be integrated at all. The benefit of going this route is you will be multiplying the options available to you. That's because the market is not flush with hybrids at the moment - it is a relatively new concept. In summary - since you are at the whim of nature as to how much power you can make on any given day, you can afford to be aggressive in selecting renewable energy winds AND solar devices for the home. As the technology continues to improve though, more and more of the renewable systems that are available will be hybrids.
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