Hobbyist Renewable Energy?

vossman77 writes "I was looking into renewable energy from a hobbyist perspective, maybe generating a few watts of solar or wind power, just to reduce my electric bill. But upon further review, I found out that I need a special grid-tied AC inverter that shuts off when the grid turns off (for worker safety reasons) and makes the current in-phase with the grid. These two additional features, over the cheap inverters sold at department store, make the cost upwards of $2000, but support more watts than I need. While this is fine for large-scale projects, it is out of range for a small scale hobbyist. A Google search came with some home-brew hacks at best. So, are there any Slashdotters out there doing small-scale renewable energy projects with grid-tied systems? What are other options for the hobbyist to play around with renewable energy, other than charging a cell phone?"

Renewable energy comer in many forms

[Anonymous Coward]

What are other options for the hobbyist to play around with renewable energy, other than charging a cell phone?

Breed Whales, burn the oil.

Re:Renewable energy comer in many forms

[bigdadro]

Curse you anonymous coward! You made me snarf diet pepsi all over my keyboard!

Re:Renewable energy comer in many forms

[MozeeToby]

Oh sure, that works for you people on the coast but what about the rest of us? That's why we should be focussing on cow-whale hybrids http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/13/1710223&from=rss [slashdot.org] that can live on land and still provide us with delicious whale meat and oil.

Re:Use a 'fan center' to isolate when grid power d

[Ceriel Nosforit]

...we're talking about generating lethal amounts of power and driving it into wiring that goes into other people's houses and into systems that other people are maintaining.

You make it sound like a bad idea. :p