Part 4 of Small Hydropower Systems. Obtaining a Permit and Water Rights If your hydropower system will have minimal impact on the environment, and you aren’t planning to sell power to a utility, there’s a good chance that the process you must go through to obtain a permit won’t be too complex. Locally, your first […]
Part 5 of Battery Power for Your Residential Solar Electric System. 1. The largest cost, over the life of the system, is the batteries. The lifetime cost, including maintenance, of your batteries is dependent on your initial purchase price, how well you adhere to a maintenance schedule, and the replacement interval for the batteries you […]
Part 2 of Get Your Power from the Sun. Photovoltaic (PV) systems convert sunlight directly to electricity. They work any time the sun is shining, but more electricity is produced when the sunlight is more intense and strikes the photovoltaic modules directly (as when rays of sunlight are perpendicular to the photovoltaic modules). Unlike solar […]