Indeed. However I'm required to use a microcontroller-based system due to the environment of the alternator. Essentially the alternator will feed a dynamic load, which may change in nature from leading to lagging very quickly, as well as in magnitude. So unfortunately it won't feed a battery charger-type load. Additionally I'd like to expand on the project in the future by modifying the programming and circuitry to allow multiple alternators to run and supply such loads in parallel. At the moment I'm aiming for a simple circuit on a standalone generator, but with the provision to expand to something like PID control or PWM with a SEPIC supply. That is a long way off, however it would seem to stipulate a microcontroller-based solution due to future work as opposed to an analogue transistor-based arrangement.
I should add that in additon to the future expansions I'd also like to add additional facilities such as a voltage output display, a frequency monitor (which I can assume will function by monitoring the number of zero-crosses per second and dividing by two), as well as (hopefully) a facility to remotely set and adjust the desired voltage on the fly. I know older systems use a variable resistor for this, but I'd like to use a keypad-type arrangement. I'm dreaming big, but hopefully I can get the basics down first before moving into these areas!