Jean's discovery the other day of the solar-powered restaurant in Brooklyn got me thinking again about the feasibility of small scale alternative energy systems here in the U.S.

Last year I remember reading about a program run by an NGO in Bangladesh that had installed hybrid systems in a number of villages without any grid connection at all. I've lost the reference to the article, but these were solar/wind systems, with a small solar panel and a micro wind turbine mounted on the roof with a single pole. They must've have been relatively cheap, as I don't think there were any government subsidies and were essentially donated.

Obviously the load from a rural home in Bangladesh compared to an American home would be smaller by an order of magnitude. It would be interesting as an exercise to see what it would take to develop and install a hybrid system here. Perhaps using NYC and Berkeley, CA as two different test locations.

The solar installer of the system for the Habana Outpost had some useful info, apparantley they also did another solar project in our neighborhood.

Maybe Dan will be convinced to install one on his roof if it looks feasible!