Selfsufficientish.com

http://technologywebblog.com/2009/05/10 ... in-taiwan/

And when it's not in use it can power 80% of its neighbourhood.

wow! that's fantastic & it's stunning! now why couldn't someone have got their thinking caps on when it came to building the london olympic stadium??? I was only saying the other day instead of spending hundreds of thousands on the wind farms & using up acres of land, why don't the electricity companies 'rent' roof space off poorer housing, they could get a limitless amount of space to put solar panels on, give free elecrticity to families on a low income & get the extra electricity back to the grid which they could sell on. Surely the future of green electricity has got to be on our roofs rather than taking up miles of coast or land??

I think it has a lot to do with the British weather

(double posting, 'xuse me)

CyberPaddy66 wrote:I think it has a lot to do with the British weather

That is what a lot of people think, however:

http://www.solar-trade.org.uk/solarener ... source.htm

Solar energy in the UK is far greater than most people imagine. In the summer, when items such as car bodies are often too hot to touch we become aware of the Sun's heat. However, even in the spring and autumn and on clear winter days we receive very useful amounts of solar energy.
By tilting a surface to an angle the amount of solar radiation falling on it will be greater than that falling on a flat surface in this country.
Fortunately, the average tilt of a UK house roof is about the optimum for receiving solar energy in the UK.
NB. The average property requires approximately 3,000 kWh per year for domestic water heating.