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All the promise of a green future lies behind a garage door on Northeast Broadway Avenue.

On the left is a miniature biodiesel plant, consisting of a water heater and three 50-gallon drums, containing, among other things, the raw material of used vegetable oil and the final, earth-friendly product that has surged through shower heads connected by black pipe during its purification rinse.

Large bolts, hefty enough to secure wind turbine towers, are slumped in cardboard containers. In the shiny black and silver suitcase near a workbench rests a battery charger, soon to be connected via a satellite network and transmitting a computer signal when it sends a refueling charge through an electric vehicle.

Oh, and that black panel off in a corner? It delivers the energy of the sun to a ventilation fan on a partly cloudy day to demonstrate the practicality of solar power.

This is the hardware of a green believer, James McCain, and a business that has tried for the last two years to deliver alternative energy to the residential market.

McCain, 27, launched Innovative Kinetics in 2008, renting an East Side workshop from his uncle, mortgaging his home, tapping his college savings and finding some angel investors in his family for the $60,000 needed to get the business off the ground after banks turned him down.

Unlike major players in renewable energy, whether they are building wind turbines or brewing biodiesel fuel from soybean oil and animal fats, McCain’s entree into the green industry has not been padded with tax credits and government-issued grants and loans.

He is on his own, and it has been a long haul, financially and emotionally. McCain is, after all, a true believer, driven more by passion than by a search for profits.

Innovative Kinetics installs what are called “small wind” turbines that generate anywhere from 2.5 to 10 kilowatts to meet some of the energy needs of homes and small businesses. In addition, McCain sells and installs solar devices and recently became the Iowa representative for ChargePoint electric vehicle charging stations. And, let’s not forget that he makes his own biodiesel fuel.

McCain has soured on small wind. He doubts that any of the two dozen turbines he has installed operate at full capacity, which studies have shown to be true of most turbines, even those spinning on large, utility-owned wind farms. In addition, it takes three to nine months of wading through bureaucracy to get the permits needed to install the units.

“I was a young man blinded by passion,” McCain said.

In addition, he found himself in an industry where companies and installers would be here one day and gone the next.

One of those companies, Prevailing Power LLC in Shenandoah, has shuttered its facility after complaints from customers in Iowa drew the attention of the Iowa attorney general. In addition, the company was poised to win $300,000 from Colorado Springs, Colo., to help it open a wind turbine manufacturing factory. That deal fell through after Colorado Springs officials learned about the company’s problems in Iowa.

When Farm Boy Energy Inc. closed its doors in Des Moines last year, it left behind 49 customers in Iowa, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Texas who might have had claims against the company related to installation or incomplete installation of wind turbines, according to the bankruptcy filing of its former president, Michael Pagano.

McCain said one of the problems with small wind has been that some companies have relied on turbines shipped from overseas, China in particular, that either have not arrived as promised or have not functioned properly when they have been installed.

“We’ve backloaded this market with stuff that wasn’t tried and true,” he said.

In addition, many homeowners do not want 100-foot towers looming over their homes, opting instead for shorter towers that do not capture enough wind to allow the turbines to operate at top ratings.

And there is the noise. On a recent day when McCain was demonstrating a silent plug-in charger for electric vehicles, he received a telephone call from a customer who wanted to know whether her turbine would always make “that much noise.”

In theory, residential customers can sell excess electrical power generated by their wind turbines to utility companies. However, that arrangement typically is made as an adjustment to a utility bill and is calculated at the utilities’ wholesale cost for wind, which is less than their retail charge to a customer.

It all adds up to a disappointment for McCain, who has testified before the Iowa General Assembly in support of proposed laws that would have been more favorable to residential consumers and has sought the adoption of standards for the manufacture and installation of small-scale turbines.

Those laws and standards have not been adopted.

All of those disappointments with wind have turned McCain’s attention to electric vehicles and solar.

He is particularly keen on establishing an infrastructure that will allow electric cars and trucks to cruise the nation’s highways free from the fear of losing their charge.

McCain said the most practical application for the units, which cost $4,000 to $6,000, would be at restaurants and hotels where people plan to take a break from their travels. A typical charge could take from three to eight hours as the units are configured at the moment. Efforts are under way to standardize plugs and other components that would allow some models to charge in 30 minutes to three hours.

Discussions are under way to have them installed at the new Franklin Avenue Library in Des Moines. Parking ramps would be another location.

Drivers would be issued a card that is read by the unit. They can pay on the spot or the card will record their usage for later billing. A typical charge will cost about $4, providing enough energy to propel a vehicle through its estimated 40- to 200-mile range. Customers also can pay $100 a month for unlimited charges.

When the charge is complete, the unit sends a text message or e-mail saying that the vehicle is ready for the road.

Locations of the chargers and whether they are in use also can be tracked online.

A trip can be planned based on the location of chargers and the number of chargers at each location. While traveling, drivers also can find out whether the chargers are in use.

Owners of the charging units receive 80 percent of the revenue generated per unit, McCain said.

“With one of these, you are going to be guaranteed a segment of the market,” he said.

That market is waiting to develop, especially in Greater Des Moines, where dealers are awaiting the arrival of electric vehicles after manufacturers deliver to more developed markets on the East and West coasts.

McCain is convinced that the market will develop.

“It’s going to change the way we do things,” he said.