Quote (Ep0ch @ Jun 12 2018 06:37am)
Prob is our current solar cells have something like 80% energy lost / not used. They only puck up a very specific wavelength of photons. And iirc it's not even the high energy ones...
High energy photons get absorbed by ozone and oxygen molecules.
The highest energy you can get a reasonable harvest from are the low energy UV, and visible light photons.
Wind isn't very efficient either, the turbines take a massive amount of upkeep and barely catch any wind.
Thankfully though sun is pretty reliable and you can catch it anywhere. Solar already overtook coal in terms of cost per energy production, and that's after considering coal subsidies.