Depending upon the amount of land in the area that you have in your house or surrounding it, you might be able to completely power your house through solar power, and appropriate batteries for backup. It would be a better idea for you to consult a technician that has considerable knowledge about solar power and the cost of installing solar panels as well as the batteries in order to get a 24-hour backup for your house in all possible times.
Even during cloudy days, the solar panel does not cease to function. Rather, instead of generating a certain amount of power, it might be able to get a 50% decrease on that amount, but it will still generate the power without any problems. So, for those skeptics that is actually wary about the use of solar power, the one thing that the need to realize about such a product is the fact that it is no longer a mitigating disaster, but rather a lifesaver for people that would like to get away from the electrical grid and simply use energy sources at their disposal in order to live their lives properly.
Considering that there are a lot of changes that are to be done in the energy sector of today, you need to simply look at solar power as the Holy Grail when it comes to renewable energy that is very easily affordable and yet can be installed within the confines of your own house. If you had enough wind power in your vicinity and a lot of land at your disposal, putting up wind turbines with the help of companies might also seem to be a good use of the land. However, it is not always the proper method of generating power, simply because it could also in danger the birds flying through that particular trail. So, you need to be able to consider the animals as well in your need to generate electricity (fix car battery), so much so that they are health should not be put on the line simply because you need to generate electricity.
Above everything that has been mentioned about the generation of electricity done at your own expense, the one thing that you need to realize about proper energy generation is the efficiency. Solar panels as of today have a theoretical efficiency of 40% as against the market value of about 30%. So, we are eagerly waiting for solar panels to get more efficiency.