Battery charging with intermittant power source

Hi I am wondering about the best way to charge lead acid batteries from a source that cannot be relied on for constant power such as wind, or solar. So far I am looking at 2 ways to do this:

Cycle charging
For this method I need a constant current, until the charge voltage is reached, then maintain the charge voltage for a time, or until the current drops to a minimum, after which I drop to a float voltage.
The difficulty with this is that the charge cycle can be interrupted at any time, and might be restarted when the battery is partly or fully charged.

Floating
For this I would set the current limit to the maximum battery charging limit plus the battery's output current, and set the regulation voltage to the lead acid float voltage. From the reading I have done on this topic I believe that this will shorten the service life of the battery.

Any suggestions as to how to do this?

Scott
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