Renewable energy for your home, also known as alternative energy, can come in quite a few forms. Solar power is a form of renewable green energy. We've all seen the solar panels sitting atop of someone's roof, quietly capturing clean solar energy to use for heating your house or powering your lights and appliances.Let's take a look at how it all works.

Simply put, the sun shines on a solar panel, which is made up of many photovoltaic cells. Without going into the assembly or composition of these cells, they can convert electricity directly from the sunlight. The cells are joined together and assembled into a solar panel to produce renewable green energy. Now that you have your solar panel, what do you do with the electricity it is generating?

You can do a couple of things at this point. You can tie your system into the energy grid, (please consult a trained and certified electrician if you plan to go this route) or you can go completely off the grid and use batteries to store the power. The main problems with this is the batteries take up a lot of space, they also require regular maintenance and are very expensive.

Another issue is that the solar panel produces DC, or direct current, and your house is built to operate on AC, or alternating current. Luckily there's a device called an inverter which can take the direct current produced by your solar panels and change it into a form of usable power for your lights and appliances. Some photovoltaic modules actually have inverters built right into them.

Another form of renewable energy is wind power. You can build your own wind turbine or have one installed to capture the renewable green energy of the wind. Wind turbines work by harnessing the kinetic energy of the wind. The whirling blades spin a shaft which then spins an electrical generator.

A number of factors will determine what's right for you regarding your choice of which renewable energy to use. Depending on where you live and also how much property you have, either a solar power or wind power solution will be right for you. Solar panels don't take up very much space, but a wind turbine can require lots of room as well as cooperation from neighbors who might consider it an eyesore.

One drawback with most renewable green energy solutions has always been the cost. While advances in technology and manufacturing have brought costs down in recent years, the payback time for solar power and wind power can be quite a long while, and certainly something to think about when considering green energy plans.

But we all have to help to try and conserve what little natural resources our planet has left and I'm sure most people want to do something, but as I have already mentioned it always seems to be that we are always in the hands of company's that jump on the band wagon to make a commercial killing!! why o why is silicon which is what solar panels are made from so expensive, it's basically SAND!!! we walk on the stuff everyday,

However there is an answer if you or anyone you know has basic DIY skills you could save yourself a fortune while helping to save our planet. More info coming soon. Thank you so much for reading, Barry.