Background

Solar power for homes is growing with leaps and bounds as theoretically, prices for solar panels are decreasing as demand increases. However, last year, even with a small-sized house, it would have cost me \$18,000 to install solar panels, which had a huge ROI time period because our annual electric bill is \$700-800 only.

While investigating other solar alternatives, I came upon Homeowner Solar Kit, Plug in Solar Kits and Plug and Play Solar Panels - PluggedSolar . Plugged solar dot com. What fascinated me about their solutions is that you don't need to install this on your roof - you can install it on the ground. Also, there is NO modification to your electrical system required. You plug their solution directly into your household wiring and voila, you are reaping the benefits of solar. The cost is also a lot less, but I'm not sure if the output is the same, probably not, so don't quote me on that.

The beauty is, you plug it in, and you are started. Plus, you can unplug this and take it to your next home if you move, unlike the installed versions. Finally, no panels on your roof to deal with, which I never found attractive, and always wondered about their effectiveness in winter and durability with our weather.

Wind Turbines

I then started thinking about Wind Turbines for homes. Wind may be more reliable than solar. I have not read/done studies, but if it's windy at night, wind turbines will charge, as opposed to solar which is limited to daylight hours.

Could SolidWorks start a wind turbine campaign to encourage designers to come up with home design solutions that could be sold by companies to homes via electric companies, or individual entrepreneurs? Could this same system be able to use the same solution as pluggedsolar.com so homeowners can just plus this into their electrical system? Could SW sponsor this design contest, certainly much more useful than shooting pumpkins, and get a huge response?

how would this benefit SW?
Maybe the Marketing benefit as the sponsorship?

I'm thinking that what we really need is the US Government to start an alternative energy revolution. This could tie into the DS initiative mentioned at a QBR where DS is forming a company to go after US-based projects.

Maybe we could spin-off an internal energy-solution design team to work on projects like this and others related to energy?

With all the intelligent, creative CAD designers we have in this company, it is amazing that we have not already designed the move perfectly functional wind turbine.

I'd appreciate your thoughts. thanks.
Joe Campo