| Other Components of Alternative Energy Systems: Incentives and Hardware |
---Please Notice that blue underlined portions of this document are web links--- --Financial Incentives The Database for State Insentives for Renewable Energy, or DSIRE, is the foremost place to look for government alternative energy incentives. There are two formats: The click-the-state format is here, and the summary table of incentives are listed here. --Places to find Renewable Energy Sells So far I have found that Oasis Montana, Home Power Magazine, SunElectronics, Government Liquidation, Ebay's Liquidation Site, and Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association all carry solar parts and supplies of one kind or another for sale. Some of them offer good deals, while others offer more questionable deals. --Components The main components of a renewable energy system are the power source (solar panels, wind turbines), Inverters (If you want to use any appliances that run off of alternating current), Charge Controllers (to make sure that you don't overcharge your batteries and destroy your system), energy storage (usually batteries or the grid), lightning arrestors, wires, and a few other things if you desire. I have listed the most important components, other than the power source, here. --Inverters I only have a couple pages about inverters. For the most part, I shopped around and found one site that sells Xantrex Inverters, which have been around for a while and have a very good reputation, for a very good price, as well as some other inverters. You can find that website here. I also found a website, DonRowe.com that sells inverters for smaller applications. That website link is here. --Charge Controllers When shopping around for a charge controller, I found one that a lot of people use and has been around for a while. Xantrex makes a charge controller called the C40, which is a pretty standard charge controller. The three cheapest places I have found them are at Oasis Montana, TaosGreenSolar, and AltEnergyStore.com. --Energy Storage I have another webpage that tells all about cheap energy storage here. --Energy Efficient Home Items I have information on Energy Efficient Appliances and Lights here. |