And the profits grow

[eppie]

Hi,
What you are saying about solar cells, right down to the twenty year prediction (adjusted for inflation), I first heard in high school. That was in 1962, give or take a year. The fact that the technology is *still* twenty years away after forty-six years does not fill me with confidence. Should we continue the research? Yes. Should we depend on the results? Only if we're collectively all idiots.

Wind works now, nuclear works now, tidal and geothermal (where the conditions are right) work now. Solar? Maybe, someday. But you can't cook your food or heat your house with technology that will be developed in the future. You need something that works now, not a promise for tomorrow.

--Pete

Pete, a lot of things have changed. In 1962 if I'm correct we were using the first silicon crystal solar cells. These things work (for years already) are very effective, only cost a lot (just based on the price of ultrapure silicon).
Now a lot (and I mean a lot) of research is done (both in academia as in industry) on several kinds of cheaper cells. (dye sensitized, polymeric) Both have been produced in small scale and work reasonably well, we are not talking about the big breakthrough that nuclear fusion needs). The only reason why we see too little of them is of course that at the moment investments for people to start using them are too big, and it is still a bit unknown. But like eg the PC, cell phones or CD players there is an S curve....we are still at the beginning, just waiting to kick off.
During this time research will continue to improve things, but that needs some investments....that is why it is important to start using these things asap.
Transparent cells, flexible cells etc. have all been prepared on small scale and do work, the bottlenecks now are small adjustments and things like durability. Further it will mainly be infrastructure.

I am positive about this.