Depends on how you look at it. If you look at any one point on the axle, it’s oscillating back and forth. And three-phase AC is actually a lot like a thing that’s rotating, just in an abstract “phase space” instead of the dimensions we’re more familiar with.
It is addictive to monitor the the solar generation on the app. At least it was at first, I check less frequently now, but at least once per day to verify what we accomplished.
Here comes a cloud! I need to check this. Yea, I’m kinda that way. Computer nerds are all that way.
Do you already know this site? It’s a fun curiosity: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/
A solar-powered, low-power website that goes up and down depending on the sun.
I used to buy Real Goods catalogs. All about sustainable living. They went out of business though.
So you’re saying their business model wasn’t sustainable? 
I’ll be here all week; try the veal.
You’re a very, very bad man. Very bad.
In all seriousness though. It’s a fun catalog to look at and can give one ideas.
Never seen it. Sites like that probably make DJT think the TV goes out at night.
Wait, as in the Ukiah-based store? Real Goods - Wikipedia
That’s where I took my NABCEP PV101 (solar installer prep course), at the Solar Living Institute that shares their property! It was an awesome, hippy-dippy place with solar systems dating all way back to the 70s-style active trackers. Our class took place in a yurt next to a pond 
I also camped there, cooking in their outdoor kitchen and using their solar hot water showers. It was quite the magical experience.
I was so sad when that shuttered and became (of all things) a marijuana dispensary. Apparently it pissed off a lot of the Ukiah locals and parents too, and eventually the Real Goods store itself shut down too. It’s a very sad ending to what was once a very cool and unique place…
Thank you; I try.
Your tale of Real Goods reminds me of Mother Jones from eons ago. Fun to read even if you weren’t going to embrace the lifestyle.
Same for Whole Earth 'Lectric Catalog.
It was a different and more innocent era. Sigh. The times, they been a’changin’.
Can I share a semi-relevant anecdote?
I went to college at a California state university a few hours north of where Real Goods used to be. There, we had a smaller but similar institution, a solar-powered “alternative living” community, which was a salvaged house refitted with all sorts of experimental sustainable living technologies; not just solar (PV and thermal hot water) but also a greywater marsh, rainwater catchment, composting humanure toilets, an organic permaculture garden, pedal-powdered blenders and TVs, recycled denim insulation, etc., and… a decent-sized collection of old Whole Earth Catalog issues
There, students can take (and also co-teach) for-credit classes for everything from organic gardening to wastewater management, heat pumps, and of course PV. It was (and I hope still is) quite the phenomenal hands-on resource. People would come and tour it from afar, especially homeowners interested in retrofitting their homes with lower-impact technologies.
Yes, that more innocent era is gone, certainly, but at least some tiny part of the ethos still lives on and continues to inspire… it’s what made me start a career in solar, at least.
CSU SLO? AKA Granola State?
Cal Poly Humboldt in my case (formerly known as Humboldt State University, back in my day). I’m sure there’s more than one “crunchy” CSU
Oregon has similar institutions, as do other colleges (long PDF of history of student sustainable living demonstration sites).
Being at these places often feel like living through an episode of Portlandia. But yeah, it’s a mentality and a lifestyle that’s pretty hard to find in mainstream USA today. Sometimes I wish the Amish would take in outsiders…
Humboldt; yeah. Major league crunchy.
I’d much rather some wacky Jonestown style cult take in the other side and leave the whole country to sane thoughtful folks like us.
Don’t have to be crunchy; just have to be un-mean.
Kinda incredible that anyone could think that was a more “innocent” era, and then a few short sentences later bring up an event from that same era, where 900 of the crunchiest of SF/Berkeleyites killed themselves and their own children.
Thin line between innocence and self-delusion, I guess…
Kinda scratching my head about that myself.
I came close a couple of time going sustainable energy. Mountain house has a very, very small year round stream. It’s steep enough that it doesn’t freeze. Starts from a spring perhaps 100 feet behind my property line. I was thinking hydro power. But every time I looked at the numbers, they just did not add up to be worth it. Would have been fun but only in an experiment type of way.
Things changed greatly with net metering. Your power company essentially becomes your battery where you ‘store’ your extra energy. Those are given back as credits against your bill. Yeah, you get screwed on it, they charge you more for ‘their’ energy then they pay you for what you create. But it’s a start.
I’ve never seen small-scale hydro or wind close the case. It just doesn’t scale down very well, even if you have the means of building it. I think the problem is basically height. A hydro system with low head height or a short wind turbine just doesn’t produce much. So when you scale down, it’s way more than a linear scaling (i.e., a 1/10 scale system produces way less than 10% of the power).
Solar is different, though. A 1/10 scale system does produce 10% of the power, and a 1/10000 scale system produces 0.01%. It’s cost effective at every scale.
And as you say, net metering improves the situation further, giving you a free “battery,” though IMO the situation can’t last forever. Some places impose grid tie charges, etc. But for now it’s still a benefit, and in the long run cheaper panels will win out.
Are there no turbines that can stably provide, say, 100W-200W even in low head scenarios? https://www.alternative-energy-tutorials.com/hydro-energy/water-turbine-design.html
Even if it can’t replace solar on its own, it would be a good secondary backup system that can at least power a few lights and a cell phone or such.
There are, but 100-200 W sucks for a system that will cost thousands of dollars to install and require significant maintenance. Solar costs <$2/W with inverters.
Sure, you could make a case for it as a secondary backup system, but even then you’re probably better off then with a diesel generator.