With rising fuel and energy costs seemingly never ending year after year, harsher winters and increasing numbers of electronic products in the home than ever before, receiving the monthly and quarter energy bill is often met with trepidation. But this dependency doesn't have to be the case.

Renewable energy including wind turbines and home solar panels is becoming increasingly researched and given strong thought by home owners and forward thinking architects, builders and property developers.

Unlike the dependency on fossil fuels and in particular oil, the solar energy to your home solar panels will never run out. As a consumer you will not be held to ransom on the supplies and demands of the oil market as solar energy will never fluctuate in price as it is completely free and renewable energy. Indeed any extra electricity that is generated can be sold back to the grid to the energy providers, and with energy prices notoriously high this might represent a considerable profit.

Environmentally home solar panels can have a big impact too. Not only are your carbon emissions and carbon footprint dramatically reduced, but you will also go some way in being sustainable, which in today's world is no mean feat considering the 21st century appliances which we all use in our everyday lives.

We have all seen the benefits of solar powered calculators and garden water fountains amongst others, so we can readily see and appreciate the functionality of the technology but there are of course some considerations. The biggest and most traditional of this is the initial set-up cost and installation charge. Although this is decreasing all the time as the technology and parts become cheaper and more cost effective this is usually too large of an expense for a number of homes. There are a number of initiatives, trusts and grants however that will help with this and so many home owners would be foolish not to consider employing solar panels in their home, particularly in the wake of such high energy bills.