Home wind turbines are electric generators that convert wind energy into clean, emission-free power. Although most large wind farms exist to power certain towns and communities, there are also smaller wind turbines for homes and homeowners. These smaller turbines can be installed on any part of your property to cover some or even all of your monthly energy needs.
^{Jump up ^ Artificial photosynthesis as a frontier technology for energy sustainability. Thomas Faunce, Stenbjorn Styring, Michael R. Wasielewski, Gary W. Brudvig, A. William Rutherford, Johannes Messinger, Adam F. Lee, Craig L. Hill, Huub deGroot, Marc Fontecave, Doug R. MacFarlane, Ben Hankamer, Daniel G. Nocera, David M. Tiede, Holger Dau, Warwick Hillier, Lianzhou Wang and Rose Amal. Energy Environ. Sci., 2013, Advance Article doi:10.1039/C3EE40534F}
In the 1980s and early 1990s, most photovoltaic modules provided remote-area power supply, but from around 1995, industry efforts have focused increasingly on developing building integrated photovoltaics and power plants for grid connected applications (see photovoltaic power stations article for details). Currently the largest photovoltaic power plant in North America is the Nellis Solar Power Plant (15 MW).[24][25] There is a proposal to build a Solar power station in Victoria, Australia, which would be the world's largest PV power station, at 154 MW.[26][27] Other large photovoltaic power stations include the Girassol solar power plant (62 MW),[28] and the Waldpolenz Solar Park (40 MW).[29]
There are two types of crystalline silicon, but it’s likely you’ll more often encounter monocrystalline silicon: it has a square-ish structure, and its high silicon content makes it more effective (and more expensive) than other panel materials. The other type of crystalline silicon, polycrystalline, is cheaper but less effective, so it’s used when there’s plenty of space (e.g., on a solar farm)—typically not on residential installs.
For a 6 kW wind turbine to produce that much energy per average year, you need an annual average wind speed of close to 5 m/s (11 mph) blowing at turbine hub height. It may not sound like much, but that is a reasonably windy place. Much of North America does not have that much wind at 100′ or below. Keep in mind, you need that much wind just to break even in energy production vs. solar. To outweigh the disadvantages of small turbines you better have more!
^{Micro-hydro configured into mini-grids also provide power. Over 44 million households use biogas made in household-scale digesters for lighting and/or cooking, and more than 166 million households rely on a new generation of more-efficient biomass cookstoves.[26] Clean liquid fuel sourced from renewable feedstocks are used for cooking and lighting in energy-poor areas of the developing world. Alcohol fuels (ethanol and methanol) can be produced sustainably from non-food sugary, starchy, and cellulostic feedstocks. Project Gaia, Inc. and CleanStar Mozambique are implementing clean cooking programs with liquid ethanol stoves in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Mozambique.[139]}

In conclusion, I would say that however great the scientific importance of this discovery may be, its practical value will be no less obvious when we reflect that the supply of solar energy is both without limit and without cost, and that it will continue to pour down upon us for countless ages after all the coal deposits of the earth have been exhausted and forgotten.[36]

As the section above shows, anything under 5 m/s annual average wind speed is not going to be worth-while if you want any economic benefit out of a wind turbine. Even with government incentives, you would be better off with solar for most places. Let us take this a bit further, and assume your backyard is pretty windy, a full 6 m/s (13.4 mph) annual average wind speed at 100′ height. You get a 6 kW wind turbine installed, and shell out $50,000 for that privilege. If the installer did her job properly, the turbine is spinning in nice, clean, laminar air, and it will produce around 13,000 kWh per year. You are the kind of person that wins the lottery on a regular basis, marries a beauty queen (or king), and has kids that all go to ivy-league universities; your wind turbine never breaks and you do not have to shell out a single buck for maintenance over 20 years. Now your turbine has produced around 260,000 kWh of electricity, which works out to 19.2 cents per kWh in cost. Maybe you pay more than for electricity and it is worth it, but your are likely not getting rich, and any repairs and maintenance will drive that price up in a hurry.
The Vestas V164 has a rated capacity of 8 MW,[79] later upgraded to 9.5 MW.[80][81] The wind turbine has an overall height of 220 m (722 ft), a diameter of 164 m (538 ft), is for offshore use, and is the world's largest-capacity wind turbine since its introduction in 2014. The conventional drive train consist of a main gearbox and a medium speed PM generator. Prototype installed in 2014 at the National Test Center Denmark nearby Østerild. Series production began end of 2015.
The oldest solar thermal power plant in the world is the 354 megawatt (MW) SEGS thermal power plant, in California.[109] The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is a solar thermal power project in the California Mojave Desert, 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Las Vegas, with a gross capacity of 377 MW.[110] The 280 MW Solana Generating Station is a solar power plant near Gila Bend, Arizona, about 70 miles (110 km) southwest of Phoenix, completed in 2013. When commissioned it was the largest parabolic trough plant in the world and the first U.S. solar plant with molten salt thermal energy storage.[111]
The New Zealand Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment found that the solar PV would have little impact on the country's greenhouse gas emissions. The country already generates 80 percent of its electricity from renewable resources (primarily hydroelectricity and geothermal) and national electricity usage peaks on winter evenings whereas solar generation peaks on summer afternoons, meaning a large uptake of solar PV would end up displacing other renewable generators before fossil-fueled power plants.[127]
The first three are active solar systems, which use mechanical or electrical devices that convert the sun's heat or light to another form of usable energy. Passive solar buildings are designed and oriented to collect, store, and distribute the heat energy from sunlight to maintain the comfort of the occupants without the use of moving parts or electronics.
There is more trouble with rated power: It only happens at a “rated wind speed”. And the trouble with that is there is no standard for rated wind speed. Since the energy in the wind increases with the cube of the wind speed, it makes a very large difference if rated power is measured at 10 m/s (22 mph), or 12 m/s (27 mph). For example, that 6 meter wind turbine from the previous section could reasonably be expected to produce 5.2 kW at 10 m/s, while it will do 9 kW at 12 m/s!
^{A photovoltaic system converts light into electrical direct current (DC) by taking advantage of the photoelectric effect.[51] Solar PV has turned into a multi-billion, fast-growing industry, continues to improve its cost-effectiveness, and has the most potential of any renewable technologies together with CSP.[52][53] Concentrated solar power (CSP) systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. Commercial concentrated solar power plants were first developed in the 1980s. CSP-Stirling has by far the highest efficiency among all solar energy technologies.}
Through collaboration, smaller buyers can benefit from economies of scale, while larger buyers can continue to see cost benefits while achieving their renewable energy goals. Aggregation allows companies to procure in a mutually beneficial way with relatively little give and take. For that reason, RMI believes this marks “the beginning of a trend,” Haley said.  
Green marketing is the sale of green power in competitive markets, where consumers have the option to choose from a variety of suppliers and service offerings, much like they can choose between long-distance telephone carriers. The key difference between green marketing and green pricing is that with green marketing, you are actually switching electricity providers. 

The overwhelming majority of electricity produced worldwide is used immediately, since storage is usually more expensive and because traditional generators can adapt to demand. However both solar power and wind power are variable renewable energy, meaning that all available output must be taken whenever it is available by moving through transmission lines to where it can be used now. Since solar energy is not available at night, storing its energy is potentially an important issue particularly in off-grid and for future 100% renewable energy scenarios to have continuous electricity availability.[106]

“Volkswagen Converting Zwickau Automotive Plant to Produce Electric Vehicles” • In a move that it believes is the first of its kind in the world for a major car factory, VW is converting its auto factory in Zwickau, Germany from internal combustion vehicle production to manufacture of electric vehicles. The plant makes 330,000 cars per year. [CleanTechnica]
Buying a wind turbine generator such as the Windmax HY1000 to produce wind energy is not easy and there are a lot of factors to take into account. Price is only one of them. Be sure to choose an electrical machine that meets your needs. If you are installing a grid-connected system, choose an AC mains voltage generator. If you are installing a battery-based system, look for a battery-charging DC generator. Also consider the mechanical design of a generator such as size and weight, operating speed and protection from the environment as it will spend all of its life mounted at the top of a pole or tower.
Compact Linear Fresnel Reflectors are CSP-plants which use many thin mirror strips instead of parabolic mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto two tubes with working fluid. This has the advantage that flat mirrors can be used which are much cheaper than parabolic mirrors, and that more reflectors can be placed in the same amount of space, allowing more of the available sunlight to be used. Concentrating linear fresnel reflectors can be used in either large or more compact plants.[16][17]