It was a windy gray and wet day in Berlin when I arrived and it was windy wet and gray when I left a few days later. Sure it was the beginning of winter, but all Berliner's seem to have the one complaint - great city, miserable weather - it's always cloudy. Not a great place for solar power you would think, well, how wrong can you be. On the train ride into Berlin from the airport, I saw a few solar panels on roofs but didn't think much of it. But, as I walked the streets and admired the monuments, history, "The Wall" and the life of the city, I came to realise that Berlin has a resilience and can-do attitude.

My camera worked overtime as I walked the streets. But then as I walked the back streets of East Berlin, I found not only the famed graffiti art but also solar panels.  Yes - this photo is from a squat right in the center of East Berlin, about 40 caravans and demountables, all with solar panels.   They sprouted everywhere. On roof-tops and semi-permanent truck-cum caravan parks. "Hippy" squats in vacant city blocks in semi derelict buildings had solar panels pointing skyward. The graffiti covered skate park had solar panels. Back in the west side, I saw more buildings with roof tops sporting solar panels. I sat in a small bar and asked a local about the solar panels - "Oh Yes, very good", was the response. The panels I saw in East Berlin were of all types. There were small commercial sets and large obviously home made solar panel arrays bolted in place with scrap aluminium pipe. It turns out that while we have the stereotypical view that solar panels are only good for using in the bright strong sunshine of southern USA, Africa and Australia - that's not the whole story. Properly used and connected to the grid or storage, they can effectively "top-up" power supplies.

When I got back home, I did a little checking. Berlin has a special program that encourages solar power, all in cloudy Berlin. The Berlin Solar Atlas project, surveyed nearly all 500,000 roofs. This was then used to calculate the solar potential of 14,300 roofs. This could theoretically generate almost 100 gigawatt-hours of solar power - about one percent of the electricity consumed by the entire city. If all the roofs of Berlin installed panels - they could produce two-thirds of the electricity required by the city's private households - not bad for a city know for its chronically gray skies. So - if it can be done in Berlin - almost anywhere can take a stab at solar power generation.

If they can coax power out of a cloudy sky in Berlin, there is no reason you cannot supplement some of your needs in most normal skies and climates.  DIY Solar panel projects can supply or supplement at least some of your power, even if its just to run a pump, extractor fan or energy efficient globe for a few hours in your hut or caravan out in the back-blocks.