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The key words "if you lived in an area that had a lot of direct sunlight". I live in the Great Northwet.


Not entirely true Soren. After all, Germany isn't exactly known for its balmy weather ya know! Granted, you get more out of an area like the South or Southwest where you have over 300 sunny days a year, but to some degree, solar panels can be "tuned" to different wavelengths of light. I would imagine, given some time, one that utilizes a majority of the light in the UV end of the spectrum (which you have even on cloudy days) could be developed. Of course, maybe a better idea would be a variation on the wind farm thing, especially for the northwest. This one could be a water driven turbine though, that you put on your gutters and downspouts or maybe you just put up a bunch of GIANT funnels with water turbines on the bottom end....