The actual energy itself is free.  Sunlight is provided without charge, so is wind, so is moving water.  

The means to utilize this free energy and convert it into a useable form is not.  It can be very costly to convert this "free energy" into something that you can collect and store and use when needed.

Now just try to get that through the guy's head that is driving down the road and sees a bank of solar collectors.  He is thinking 'those things just sit there and make power from the light hitting them'.  He doesn't think about the purchase cost, taking care of them, repairing damage from storms, batteries, the expensive electronics needed to use the power, life expectancy of the system components, etc.  He just sees solar collectors putting out "free" power.  Now, if you could get someone to give you all the components needed and provide the ongoing maintanence and replacement parts...you've got free energy!!!  Hey!  Free energy does work!  (When you find this benefactor, I would like to talk to him about my system too)

Hahahah, Happy new year ,Ol mate.

so, you've had your "day-off' for the year. now go out and straighten that 60 feet of spagetti out  !!!.

Free--- pull the other leg-- nothing is free ,but as you say , doing stuff yourself and recycling mechanical stuff can be fun.
I just put up a 57 foot tower--it cost 3 cartons of beer for a truck load of steel, 1 carton of beer for some copper wire and guy wire terminations,50 bucks for guy wire. and nearly 100 bucks for turnbuckles and misc Etc.

Now thats not bad for a 57 foot tower.

happy new year ,Al.

Wind is trully free power, if the equipment to use it is free. In the olds days before all the GOV crap and saftey bull, I built little sail boats rafts from scrap to play with, a couple decent ones from junk also. Run the little motor it cost me gas or battery power (depending what I put on it). Run up the sail and it was free power :)
The mast was scrap pipe and the sail was a garbage tarp that leaked in the rain and even the guy lines were scrap rope. Free power at it's best, then when I junked the rafts/boats I just toss all the scrap back into the yard for the next fun project.

Course if I had to buy the stuff for the sail it would not have been free at all. Just free junk I dragged home different times that was being throwed away and was able to use the free wind power instead of pay power type feul.

I been wanting to build another sometime, but lots of crap since the 70's and more crowded lakes.
 
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nothing to lose