I know it's probably an inefficient addition in terms of the cost of implementation, but it occurs to me that the design of those wind turbines could perhaps include a couple of solar panels - one or two on each of those large doors covering the maintenance bay Tom is standing in...? Surely the energy being transferred from the turbine gets output at some point into a local grid which is then sent off to the national grid... couldn't you just add the power from those solar panels into the total output from each turbine at the bottom of each structure where its output meets the local grid?<br><br>Now, I know a solar panel has a comparatively-small output compared to the turbine itself, but if you multiply that little extra top-up by the number of turbines in each wind farm over a day's worth of sunlight that would surely be a net increase (albeit a relatively minor one)...?<br><br>It just seems that there's a completely unfettered bit of real estate on top of those structures with uninterrupted sunlight, with only the shadow of the blades potentially blocking the light temporarily if the wind happens to be coming directly from the East. And while it's true that the solar panels would only produce their maximum energy potential while the sun shines rather than 24/7, the same could also be said for the wind turbines themselves. After all, the whole point of building wind farms in flat areas is to maximise the amount of wind they are exposed to... wouldn't putting solar panels in a position so high up that they have only one intermittent shadow-casting element between them and a completely open sky be doing effectively the same sort of thing - maximising the chance of catching as much sunlight as possible...?<br><br>It just seems to me that for relatively-little expense and just a bit more hassle in maintenance, each turbine tower could be producing a little bit more bang for its buck... and when multiplied across a whole wind farm that would be a worthwhile increase over time.