Problem is, the sun doesen't necessarily rise above the horizon for weeks in northern countries
I had 48KWh worth of storage, 2500 W worth of wind and another 5000 W worth of solar. This was in Northern Ontario. Until we added the windmill we fairly regularly needed the generator, after we added the windmill the generator just sat there gathering dust.
This was a major factor in designing the machine the way I did, variable pitch is a lot more work but a machine like that will start up far earlier than a fixed pitch machine. It also had its effect on that stator, which I made with the laminates at a slant over 1/3rd magnet width, which reduced cogging to nearly nothing. This is a huge factor in starting up a direct drive machine.