Totally off the Astronomy topic here, but I was having a think on the way home tonight.....

So here is the thought...  Solar panels on roofs are becoming ubiquitous, yet they need to be south facing.  Why don't we focus light onto them from others roofs with focused, moveable mirrors?  An array of mirrors on the roof of each house in the area could easily focus energy from the Sun onto solar panels.

There is also another possibility here - in hotter climes, the energy could be focused onto a tank of water - I wonder how much energy would be required to boil enough water to drive a turbine?

If neighbours worked together and each roof focused a little light onto any solar collectors in the vicinity, would that capture enough energy to do anything useful?

Food for thought....