Quote:
Originally Posted by New Era
Wow. So wrong on so many levels. In 1953 solar cells we 4.5% efficient. In 2012 they were 15% efficient. In 2015 that number has gone up to 23.5 efficient, dropping cost down to $.70 a watt from $1.30 per watt in 2012. Substantial change in a short period of time because of breakthroughs announced a few years ago. Next gen solar cells are capable of functioning at 40-50% efficiency.
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So 60 years to increase 3.3x is something like a 2% increase in efficiency per year, hardly a revolution. And there are no widely available solar panels at 23.5% efficiency. And the real breakthrough for cheaper production appears to be Chinese manufacturing.
And those next gen solar cells may never find a market outside of military and space applications because they're far to expensive to make vs cheap silicon.