A big part of the cost of alternative energy is the storage for the electricity. But have you ever notice how fridge'n cold and windy Canadian winters are? The solution to the storage cost problem: don't store the energy as electricity store it as heat. Use the energy to generate heat, connect the system (probably a windmill) directly to a DC baseboard or ceramic type heater. The house becomes the storage. I have yet to run into a Canadian home owner who thought their house was too warm in winter.
This isn't a system to replace the home's main heat source but to supplement it at a reasonable cost. Notice it isn't necessary to try and integrate this system with the grid either, saving considerable cost and complication. It should be possible to build windmill system (blades will need to be at least 5 or 6 feet long, small mills are useless) for under a thousand dollars. It could cut heating costs by roughly $50 to $100 dollars a month for the cold part of the year (6 months), paying for itself in a few years.
