Land and Sea Solar333 Alder Avenue , Ben Lomond, California, United States

At Land and Sea Solar has been doing solar in Santa Cruz county for over twenty years. When we started, our focus was in off-grid solar. As technology and incentives became available, we offered grid-intertie solar systems to utility based customers and that has become a large portion of our business. What sets us apart from the other solar companies  besides having been around twice as long as most of them is that we are one of the only companies around that has thorough experience in all aspects of off-grid renewable energy and that remains a specialty niche for us.

Land and Sea Solar  we focus on providing the best service in designing, selling and installing solar electric systems and their components.

Wind Energy

Most parts of California are not windy enough to consider investing in wind turbines. Here in Santa Cruz county we have only a few small niches that could support a wind generator.Bear in mind that any wind turbine will be more effective the higher it is off the ground and that swept rotor area(blade size and surface area) determines output. Beware the cute little units with the 20 foot tower kits, they are for the most part a joke. A reasonable tower would be at least 45 feet tall and 60 foot would be even better. The one thing I have noticed when customers enquire about wind is the general stubbornness to accept the wisdom of those in the industry. These people will insist that they have tons of wind at their site and yet they cant handle the thought of a 45foot tower in the backyard.I have seen heard their arguments time and again and yet I can point to a number of wind turbine installations in this county that are sitting out of commission because they didn’t live up to hopes and aren’t even turned on. A steady breeze of 10 mph is not enough to bother with. The only way to know for sure is to install a data-logging wind meter and plot the output for an entire year unless you can locate historic data to prove the site is worthy.

Hydro Electric

If you are fortunate enough to have reliable source of running water on your property, micro-hydro may be a viable option for charging batteries. These units lend themselves to charging in off-grid applications and provide power 24 hours a day.

Even sites that only produce enough water to run the turbine during the rainy month’s can be worth developing as that is when solar panels are least effective.  Small scale turbines could easily produce enough power to potentially sell back to the grid in a home-based system but no rebates are in effect for such a system in case you were wondering.  Land and Sea Solar does do site evaluation to help you determine your hydro potential so give us a call. We handle turbines made by Don Harris of Harris HydroElectric and consider his products to be the best available for most applications. Harris has a new unit that utilizes a permanent magnet motor that is up to 30% more efficient than the alternator design and costs an additional $700. Visit www.harrishydro.com for more info and call us for the best possible pricing.