Reply #59: I've lived in Germany.

[JDPriestly]

If they can do it, we can do it. What do you know about Hamburg?

Here is a chart showing the average temperatures in New York City:
http://www.ny.com/general/weather.html

And here is one showing the average temperatures in Hamburg:
http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/GMXX0049?from=36hr_bottomnav_business

New York City gets maybe one or two degrees colder in the winter, but Hamburg is not as warm as New York City in the summer.

Des Moines, Iowa is generally colder than Germany. But, then, we have entire regions of the country, especially in the southwest -- immense spaces in Nevada, Utah, California, Arizona, Texas and New Mexico that are warm most of the year and that see enormous amounts of sushine.

Yuma, Arizona has a 90% chance average possible sunshine.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/online/ccd/pctposrank.txt

It's just a matter of where the solar panels are placed. Once the electricity is in the grid, almost anyone anywhere can use it. We could probably do just about everything we want with solar energy out here in L.A. It is a matter of investment in the solar panels. I think people are waiting until they believe that the technology is fully developed.