dude, solar panels are the most EFFICIENT source of renewable power. Solar can power the whole world. they're 40% efficient which is only 10% lower than fossil fuels. the power can be stored on national grids. they're not as inefficient as you think
Yeah, the most advanced solar panels are the most efficient renewable energy source in ideal conditions. The problem is that ideal conditions are very, very difficult to achieve outside of a lab. In practice a commercial solar cell in the real world will function at about 15%. That’s without factoring in cloud cover, orientation, surface buildup, or thermoelectric effects: 15% efficiency for a clean cell in full direct sunlight at the rated temperature of 25C. Factoring in the movement of the sun throughout the day brings that to about 13.5% overall. At this point, if you’re in a warm, sunny climate, you have to factor in the effect of increased temperature on the efficiency of the photovoltaic cells, which will drop to 11.7% at 50C (not a difficult temperature for a panel designed to absorb energy to reach on a hot summer day). If you’re not in a hot sunny climate? Cloud cover can take your efficiency down to less than 2%.
Solar panels are great. They definitely need to be developed further for wide-scale implementation. Solar roadways, man, I fucking loved that idea. I hope that gets off the ground. But they still have problems that need to be worked out, and there are parts of the world where they’re just never going to be the solution. Solar alone isn’t the solution. Which is why, as I said in my tags, they need to work in tandem with wind and wave and hydroelectric. In some places they just aren’t the right tool for the job.
