yes, this article of bernhard's was a major wake-up call for me.

Amen for two reasons:

"My brother plastered our parents old house, a bigger business building, with 2,000 square feet of collectors and the electricity he sells will recoup the investment within 8 years. After those the panels will generate safe net income of several thousand Euros per year.

By my calculations, 2,000 square feet = 185.8 m^2, that's 340 of these
http://www.unlimited-power.co.uk/sunpower_high_efficiency_solar_pv_panels.html
@394.08 each = gbp 133,987.20 + VAT and fitting and control gear ... with a payback time (at current rates) of 40-50 years (depending on how much the control gear costs).  < Imagine my puzzled expression here! >  I wonder (again) whether I'm on the same planet ...

Secondly, someone commented that they were installing enough PV to generate 3x their usage.  I ran the calculations for me: two people living (I thought) fairly frugally (compact fluorescent throughout, no TV or tumble-driver, electric oven, fridge, freezer, kettle, but heating and hot water from gas), using on average 100KWh/week -- about 5MWh/year.  To generate this I'd need 30 panels -- nearly gbp 12000 + control gear + taxes -- and more roof-space than I have!

So perhaps 5MWh/year is not frugal!  Did I mention the computers?

http://www.dti.gov.uk/files/file20328.pdf says that in 2003, average domestic electricity consumption was 4600 kWh per household (3918 KWh in the N.East where I am).

So this is a wake up call to me: There I was smugly thinking: I was "doing my bit", "ahead of the pack".  Obviously I'm not.  I'm going to have to think about whether a household of 2 needs an always-on house-server (music, internet, email, ...) but that's "only" using 130W as I write, I'm going to have to look at a lot more than that :-(

I hear Italy is going to catch up soon. they offer a pretty good rate for wind power... The only problem is that it's renegotiable in the future, so not entirely risk free. It's not barring investors though. I think the there layer decision making process (city, region... forgetting the third one) makes it pretty hard for outsiders to enter the market. Furthermore the wind market has been handed over to russian investors for the most part.

The other very good thing about italian laws regarding wind power is that they allow you to build in other countries: albania is on the list because there are lines accross the adriatic.

Rien n'est gratuit en ce bas monde. Tout s'expie, le bien comme le mal, se paie tot ou tard. Le bien c'est beaucoup plus cher, forcement. Celine