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As for solar power, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) runs a program called the Million Solar Roofs Initiative (www.millionsolarroofs.org), whose aim is to see a million buildings fitted with solar-powered electric systems and water heaters by 2010. Launched back in the Clinton years, the plan won't pay you to put up solar panels, but it does fund various studies and local partnerships.

Americans have not been encouraged this year to start a wind farm. A crucial tax credit for wind producers expired at the end of 2003, and the turbine trade has been hurting ever since. Congress was set to extend the credit as part of a giant federal energy bill more widely known for its huge handouts to the oil, coal, and nuclear industries. The bill stalled last December, which might be a good thing, except that it also blocked a few incentives for renewable energy -- like the wind production credit, and the first tax credit ever for home owners and others putting up small backyard turbines.

Industry observers say the credit for bigger producers will probably pass this year on one bill or another, but as of mid-spring they weren't predicting when. It's the third time in five years that the credit has been allowed to lapse, throwing the otherwise healthy wind sector into a series of short slumps.

State incentives: the local revolution

Thanks in part to state credits and other programs, Minnesota is a wind energy overachiever. Meteorologists rank it ninth in the country for potential wind production, but it's third or fourth in terms of installed wind power capacity. Inspired by such successes, local efforts to encourage renewable energy are getting more creative across the country.

With DOE funds, a group called the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (www.irecusa.org) oversees a useful Web resource called the Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (www.dsireusa.org). Visitors can click on a U.S. map and find out what credits and other encouragements are offered in their home states. Along with incentives for using solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal power in certain places, at least 10 states provide some reward for using clean-fuel cars, including those that run on hydrogen, ethanol, and natural gas.

More than two-thirds of our electricity is now produced from fossil fuels. In a few states, you can now shop around for an electricity provider that uses a share of renewable energy. In other states, "green pricing" programs let you pay a few extra dollars for electricity with the understanding that your utility will apply the extra fee to develop plants that run on alternative fuels. Another way to help underwrite such projects is to buy "green tags" from renewable energy producers themselves. Check out "A Consumer's Guide to Buying Clean Energy" at the Web site of the National Resources Defense Council, a good source on green power in general (www.nrdc.org/air/energy/gcleanen.asp).

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