Reply #82: Solar energy, at a competitive disadvantage -- you're joking, right? [View All]

Solar (PV) energy is a semiconductor technology, and the semiconductor industry has been massively funded since WW2. Hundreds of billions of dollars. That money has not gone to waste, but it has not resulted in paint-on solar cells, or even cheap silicon arrays.

In the course of a month, there are over 100 corporate press releases posted in this forum pertaining to photovoltaic technology. There has been some serious money poured into these efforts over the past half-century. Still, solar PV accounts for something like one part in 500 of our base energy supply. It's got tremendous potential, but it's had tremendous potential for a long, long time.

If we are interested in significant solar energy production out-of-the-box, solar thermal is the way to go, but THAT is the kind of solar energy that is being shorted. It's not sexy and the basic technology can not be covered by utility patents, unlike PV. Mirrors and fluid-filled pipes are not the stuff of cover stories in Scientific American and Discover, cable TV saturation coverage, or "sweet" IPOs.

--p!