In alt.home.repair
"Mark & Mary Ann Weiss" wrote:

If I could power even one computer by storage batteries and a solid state
sine wave inverter, charged by solar cells during the day, with enough
reserve to run the whole night throught til sun up, I would consider that a
great start. Because of budget limits ($300-500) this will be a DIY project.

I'm not sure this is going to be easy. How many monitors are you running?
You can invest in a box that will allow you to use one monitor with all 4
servers if you haven't done that.

A few years back, I heard about "thin film" solar cells and they were in the
experimental stages of development, but claims of efficiency completely blew
convention cells out of the water. Are these new cells on the market today
and are they as efficient as the early Popular Science articles suggested?

The efficiency is HALF of current solar cells. The advantage is that they
are cheap. I just read an article about NASA planning on using them for
satellites. I don't think they are commercially available yet.

I'm looking for a variety of alternative energy source ideas, even wind
power to charge batteries.

Perhaps it makes more sense to have one big 3kVA inverter and three times
the battery capacity and more cells charging by day and wind-driven
generators charging by night?

This may work but batteries need to be replaced every few years. Don't
make the mistake of not figuring that into the cost.

You're best bet may be a fuel cell. I think they ARE commercially
available but you'll need natural gas to run it.

Is anyone on this discussion group doing serious alternative electric energy
generation?

Nah, I just pay the big bills.