While people, in general, would prefer to live green and embrace green technology, it's unlikely that they would welcome a situation without the modern conveniences that we've grown accustomed to. When you flip a switch, you expect a light to go on. It can be disconcerting when it doesn't happen because most people are used to being connected to a power grid with a seemingly endless supply of energy. That being said, some of your customers might worry about connection to an alternative-source grid or being a freestanding entity.
The main concern of the average person, when contemplating a home on a green power grid or a self-sufficient home, is that the natural resource being tapped is unstable or won't produce enough power to meet their needs. While solar panels are usually attached to a battery for night-time use, the weather is a mitigating factor. If the power is used at night and there's a few rainy days in a row, even a massive battery system will eventually run out. Wind turbines can suffer from a lack of weather, so to speak. If it's not sufficiently windy that day, power isn't generated. Barring drought, water power is a reasonably safe bet, but its availability is limited.
Let's look at the different sources for green energy, examine the pros and cons, and consider a few methods to ensure the continuity of power.
Solar Power
Solar power is one of the most popular and widely used green technologies. There have been astounding advances in solar panel design which have increased their efficiency and reduced the necessary size. The reason they're so popular is that they can be placed on practically any surface that receives sunlight, and the space required to implement the power system for a home is minimal.
Several homes across the world are partially or predominantly powered by solar panels attached to the roof. Their primary drawbacks include weather damage and the inability to generate power at night. With a large enough implementation, however, the solar system can generate an excess of power which is stored in batteries, so power continues throughout the night. Even so, several homeowners prefer to be hooked into a traditional power grid so that they will have power even in circumstances where the solar panels are ineffective. An arrangement is often made to feed excess power on sunny days back into the community's grid in exchange for an equal amount of power later at no cost. In effect, it neutralizes the environmental effect of drawing from a fossil fuel grid.
Most of the time, solar panels are used to provide localized power. The panel is attached to the building it provides power for. There are, like wind and water power, large installations of panels in solar fields, but that requires a large plot of land which is free of vegetation and wildlife. As such, olar fields are usually placed in arid areas where development is unlikely.
There are a few other photovoltaic technologies still in development, but they're currently not practical for commercial use.
Wind Power
Wind turbines are growing in popularity for green power companies and consumers. They provide clean energy without the emissions of fossil fuel plants, and wind is an abundant, widely available source. Due to the maintenance required to keep a turbine in working order, they are less likely to be used in an independent power system. Due to the moving parts in a turbine, they require inspection, lubrication, and replacement parts. Some choose to use a very small turbine to offset the cost of power and carbon footprint of their homes, but the amount of these turbines required to provide consistent power prevents most from relying solely on independent wind power.
One of the major drawbacks of wind power is that it is highly inconsistent. As a general ball-park figure, over half of the power will be generated in less than 20% of the operation time. Short, heavy gusts of wind are the primary workhorse, and the calmer winds provide much less power than is necessary to keep a constant supply to customers. It is very unlikely that any wind farm will produce power to its full capacity, so the availability of electricity can be spotty if too much is drawn from the grid.
As a result of its inherent supply instability, the amount of turbines is often increased to ensure availability or to compensate for expansion. That can require quite a bit of land, and that land becomes unusable for other developments. Also, turbines can be an eyesore, and people just don't want to look at them. Those facts have prompted several companies to do offshore wind farms. Turbines are placed out at sea where they won't be seen and will have maximum access to the wind.
Water Power
Hydroelectric power has been in use for a long time. Large rivers are often dammed to collect the kinetic energy of the water and convert it into electricity. These plants can often supply a large population with consistent power, but once a plant is at capacity, there are very few options to increase output aside from installing higher efficiency generators. Hydroelectric power varies in availability even though it can be routed over long distances. If the dam is at production capacity, you're not going to get on that grid unless you're putting power in.
If an appropriately sized water source is available to you, there are certainly options to utilize it for both mechanical and electric power. Water wheels have been in use for centuries to power mechanical devices, and they can certainly be used to run a generator. Another option is to use the water power to pump river or ground water through a filtration system and into homes. Again, the moving parts require maintenance, and the average homeowner would be ill-equipped and disinclined to repair it, but it is an option.
There are also relatively new technologies that utilize tides and ocean waves to generate power. As these methods grow into maturity, I'm sure they will see wide use across the world in coastal areas.
Comprehensive Power Plan
Now that we've seen these three systems, we know that none of them are 100 percent consistent. There is plenty of power to be had, but it might be necessary to draw from multiple sources to ensure that power is available at all times. Otherwise, people are much less likely to purchase a home in a green development. Ideally, a house can be designed to incorporate solar panels and become mostly self-sufficient. To ensure self-sufficiency, further power can be drawn from a wind farm or dam to cover all the bases on cloudy weeks. A well-planned green power development will make sure that their customers have a reliable source of electricity, so if the power plan has tapped into all of the available resources, you shouldn't worry about the availability of power. It's green, it's clean, and it no longer comes with all the hassle.