Off-grid power production

This is Seamus. He lives in a small house far away from the city. He's only access to power is from a car battery. Whenever he needs to use an appliance, he connects it to the battery. He uses an old diesel generator to charge the battery when it runs out Besides all the smoke coming from the generator, Seamus also has to buy diesel fuel regularly to refill the generator; and there's not enough power to run all his appliances at once.

He wants another source of power. Seamus saves up to get some solar panels and installs them on the roof. The panels are made of a special material that generate electrical charge when exposed to sunlight. The solar panels are connected to a battery which stores the power. The panels generate direct current which is sent to the battery.

The fridge needs alternating current. Connected to the battery is a device that transforms the direct current into alternating current - an inverter. The solar panels generate enough power for all of Seamus's appliances. The best part is that they don't release smoky gases or require any filling like the diesel generator. Seamus is generating his own power off of the power grid.

This is called off-grid power production. On cloudy days, there's less sunlight Which means less energy to power the solar panels. Seamus has to rely on the power stored in the battery. He notices that there's lots of wind, so he installs some wind turbines. Even without the sun Seamus gets power from the wind turbines; and if the wind dies down and the sun becomes stronger, he'll get more of his power from the solar panels.

Seamus gets his power from multiple energy sources. He has a hybrid power system. Seamus has clean, reliable energy sources. They cost much more to install than the diesel generator, but he saves money by not having to refuel them. On a good day, Shamus produces more power than he uses.

Even his batteries are charged to capacity. One day Seamus sees that the power grid is now passing his house. If he waited until now, he could've gotten stable power right from the grid. But Seamus has a great idea. He connects his house to the grid.

On days when his power production is low, he gets power from the grid. When his power systems are functioning really well and he has extra power, Seamus sells the surplus power back to the grid. This helps the power company to produce power. A meter tracks how much power he buys from the grid and how much power he sells to the grid. Now Seamus produces his own power and even makes some money for the excess power he generates.

Not a bad turnout for all the money he had to spend on installing an off-grid power system.