| ▲ | HexnMarcusWolfe 4 hours ago | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
It's been cheaper than nuclear for a while now, it was only a matter of time. Personally i'm waiting for the next iterations of Kesterite cells. If we can get single cells to crack ~20% efficiency. With a tandem cell architecture, it's going to become the new standard overnight. Durability of silicon cells or better, but orders of magnitude $ cheaper to produce, and without the need to use toxic agents as in perovskite cells. We're movin' fast. For over a decade we were stuck at ~12% efficiency. And in the last 4 years (probably with AI help) we've cracked 15% efficiency https://interestingengineering.com/energy/chinese-researcher... Few more years, and with a bit of luck, we'll all be around to see solar panels that cost 1/10th of what they do now. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | micw 11 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
> we'll all be around to see solar panels that cost 1/10th of what they do now I doubt that. Currently the cells itself makes only <50% (maybe <30% meanwhile) of a PV module. So the limit to the bottom is by the glass and frame and cable, not by the cells. But $/watts can significantly go down with more efficiency. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | ipdashc 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
> we'll all be around to see solar panels that cost 1/10th of what they do now I get the impression they're already really damn cheap, to the point that the issues are more so with grid interconnections, land use, and storage | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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