[spadlet]

It does sound like a good plan BUT the only similar thing I can think of to date is the stuff done by B&Q in the UK. They had Windsave microscale wind turbines for sale in their stores but none of the literature I saw gave any presales attempt to help customers get an idea of the wind resource at their property, explain planning restrictions and impacts or provide maintanence support. I have heard of some companies having to refuse to sell people wind turbines because they would not believe that they didn't not have a significant wind resource at their site and the company didn't want accusations that their product was a waste of money/didn't work.

Consumers don't always understand how technologies work or make provision for the maintenece required. I don't think that it would help and renewables industries long term if there is a load of glossy marketing that diesn't take into account local conditions and appropriateness.

If somebody phones up wanting to know more about the domestic installation of a product, I think that the first question should be 'why?'
If a person says 'because I want the technology' again the person should be encouraged to think why they want it.

If a pesron wants to reduce their environmental impact then they should be encouraged to do the most ecconomic things first, such as adapting their house to the local environment to reduce their energy requirements (in the UK that involves ensuring a ceetain thickness of insulation). If a person has limited funds and has not done this then such activity would be more beneficial long-term than spending the same money on energy generating technology without reducing consumption requirements.

The next step should be to assess the property to find which renewable electricity technology is most appropriate for the local environment. If the house is on a windy mountain top then wind may be more ecconomic than solar photovoltaic. If the property is at the bottom of a south facing valley then solar photovoltaic may be more ecconomic than a wind turbine etc. The technology used should produce the optimum energy for the situation.

I guess that maybe a slight tweaking of your idea would be to have a series of franchises/outlets that have expertise in resource estimates for all of the renewable technologies appropriate for a country and work closely with/have a team of people which can deal with the specifics of each technology. If they also did home improvement work first it would be even better.