Topic: A new dawn for solar power?

[sam]

If solar power is ever going to take off—and the world needs it to—photovoltaic cells will have to become a whole lot cheaper to produce.

Making solar cells from silicon, the most common approach, can be expensive and relatively inefficient at turning sunlight into electricity. As semiconductor manufacturer Applied Materials chief technology officer Mark Pinto told me last year: "With solar, it's all about cost."

But there are signs of improvement, writes Richard Swanson of SunPower Corp. in this week's Science. Last year, manufacturers made 5 gigawatts of photovoltaic panels. And some of these panels required just under six grams of silicon per watt of power—down from 15 grams at the turn of the century. And that watt of power now costs around $1.40 to produce compared with $2 or more in the 1990s.

Swanson argues, that cost will fall to $1 per watt within five years—making solar power for the first time cost competitive, without subsidy, with conventional fossil fuel–fired generation.

Of course, solar power represents just 0.375 percent of all installed power generation worldwide and there's the little problem of producing electricity at night. Plus, installing the solar panels can more than triple that cost per watt to more than $4.
...../quote]

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=a-new-dawn-for-solar-power-2009-05-15

[Simon]

Solar power would be hopeless here, with our summers! 

[Sandra]

Not very good during the night time, when we typically consume more energy in our homes, either 

[sam]

Not very good during the night time, when we typically consume more energy in our homes, either 

its called a battery.

[Simon]

I'm sure Sandra knows what one of them is!   

[sam]

I'm sure Sandra knows what one of them is!   

I know 

[Sandra]

It would cost a fortune to have batteries capable of storing then giving out a couple of kilowatts for about 6 hours 

[sam]

It would cost a fortune to have batteries capable of storing then giving out a couple of kilowatts for about 6 hours 

nah it wont.

[topquark]

There's also some "interesting" work being done with carbon nanotube technology to increase the amount of energy converted:  http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=1500.php