Getting my 8.4kW solar system installed on Thursday! Long time coming...
 
For those in the US, you may want to look into having a solar system installed. With the federal 30% tax credit and my local power company incentives, they will pay for half of it. I should have the loan paid off in 7 years and paying very little (if any) for electricity from now on. Woohoo!

Are you sure you don't to convert to coal? Coal is coming back in a big way in the US.

Back to the future?? 

Nice with solar system, DRL 
 

Someday, I'd like to have a house with a running stream I can tap into.  Wind power is FAR more efficient than solar (though unpredictable, like solar), but hydro power is almost 1,000 times better than wind!
 
(Can you tell I used to be part of an Alternative Energy startup?)

It wouldn't fit in my house.
 

craigb
Someday, I'd like to have a house with a running stream I can tap into.  Wind power is FAR more efficient than solar (though unpredictable, like solar), but hydro power is almost 1,000 times better than wind!
 
(Can you tell I used to be part of an Alternative Energy startup?)

Fixed that for you.
 
Baby steps and all that.

Zargg
Nice with solar system, DRL 

Thanks, Zargg. I'm getting stoked about it!
 
Than

craigb
Someday, I'd like to have a house with a running stream I can tap into.  Wind power is FAR more efficient than solar (though unpredictable, like solar), but hydro power is almost 1,000 times better than wind!
 
(Can you tell I used to be part of an Alternative Energy startup?)

 
There are too many neighbor's trees for wind to be viable for me. A water wheel would be nice although a lot of maintenance. Kinda hard in an urban setting too. Geothermal is a possibility but very expensive for a residential install.

paulo
It wouldn't fit in my house.

Yeah, I need to quit using that term as I am getting razzed about it. :)

If I ever manage to get a house, I also intend to get solar panels installed.
 
In the UK, you can get them for free if you lease the roof / profits to the installation company for about 20 years.
 
Im not sure Id be allowed to do that on a shared ownership home though, and also the roofs have to face a certain way, but Id definitely be looking into it.

The man who designed my house designed it to benefit from passive solar heating. There is an enormous double height room with floor to ceiling window that is impossible to heat with the installed radiant ceiling system, and all the windows face south. Unfortunately he neglected to figure in that in the Puget Sound area, sunlight in the winter is short in duration and generally absorbed by cloud cover. Gets toasty in the summer though. I expect my payback for solar electric including purchase and maintenance would probably be longer than my remaining lifespan, and it would be considerably less green as a power source than the plentiful hydroelectric sources in my region.