Energize Me!

I've recently been looking at kits to make my own solar panels. I would love to harness solar energy and trim the fat off my energy bills. The potential for alternate sources of energy are there, we just have to utilize them. The power the earth has to offer is amazing, and there's no reason we have to deplete fossil fuels or take the risk with nuclear energy. On a small scale, there are many people who have gone off the grid, so to speak. They have implemented alternative energy resources, and no longer purchase electricity from public utilities. In some states, such as California, Nevada, Colorado, to name a few, people are selling energy back to the utilities, because their meter runs backwards. Of course, I live in Nebraska, and they do not offer such incentive. It doesn't matter if my  meter is running backwards, our thinking in this state is also running backwards. Even if the utilities won't buy back energy, it would still be nice to go off the grid, and not pay anything. I had looked into solar energy in the past, and realized that free energy comes with an expensive price tag! I'm thinking about trying a do it yourself method, which may run about $250 - $350. Much easier to afford than the $10,000 price tag from a few years ago. Another viable alternative is wind. There are also do it yourself windmills. My father in law came up with a brilliant idea for automobiles. I'm sure it's already been explored, but the auto industry probably doesn't want us to run our cars for free. Once a car starts forward motion, it creates wind. Wind is a free form of power. Something like a turbine could be turned fast enough from the wind generated by the forward force of the car, thus producing electricity. All you would need is that initial "push" from a battery. I'm not the mechanical type, but I believe this how "turbo" works within a motor. I thinks it's just forced air to increase horsepower. All I know is, when I look around my house, and see all the little indicator lights telling me that something is shut off, or the dishes are clean, or what time it is, I try not to think about how much it's costing me to know these things that do not matter. I would be thrilled if I knew the sun was paying for it, rather than me.