Because it's a meme energy source.
Why haven't we put these fuckers on windows and car-windows yet?
Joshua White
John Scott
Better than windmills, way less maintenance.
Nathaniel Gomez
I did the math. His numbers actually check out. You COULD power the world with 500k square KILOMETERS of solar panels. Now, it's worth pointing out that that is an area of land about the size of Spain. The basic google search I did pegs the raw manufacturing cost of the cheapest solar panel at $250 USD per meter, not including things like shipping or installation. This means just to manufacture that many solar panels would cost 125 trillion (with a T) dollars. In case you aren't sure how much money that is the Gross World Product was 107.5 trillion in 2014. Again, that's just the price to manufacture assuming the market prices for things Silicon are totally unaffected by this event.
Green freaks may feel all comfy putting a solar panel on their roof but the cold hard facts is that you cannot run the world on solar power, because we as human beings cannot afford it.
Jacob Long
Just like build four thousand 100sqkm solar panel rafts and put them all over the ocean near populous coastlines; also build like 100000sqkm worth of solar farms across deserts like Nevada & the Gobi.
No big deal.
Or, heck, you could just cover EVERY square inch of generally-southerly and unobstructed building facade & roof which isn't windows or utility ports, and that would probably cover it right there.
>inb4 solar roads
Xavier Cruz
They have put them on cars. I saw one at walmart. It looks bad. I have to admit I wouldn't mind it on a car that already looks rugged like a hummer 1. Cuz it is annoying as fuck when you leave your car light on and the battery dies.
Jack Baker
What's the point having it on a car, the alternator is running anyway. The savings would be minimal.a building would be a good idea, sure...
James Myers
Tell me genius, how efficient will a solar panel be if the energy you're trying to capture and convert is able to penetrate through to allow transparency?
Dylan Ward
you guys are dumb as shit - you're losing electricity as it travels to its destination, otherwise every country would just have a centralized megacity filled with coal and nuclear plants and the electric grid would branch from this.
eia.gov
we lose 6% just having it done locally
Isaiah Morgan
The window panels are 10% efficient, while average PVs are 15% and the best, really expensive ones are around 25%. They convert non-visible wavelengths only.
> they're not worth the cost
Sure, but in a year they will be. PV prices have dropped exponentially for over a decade.
Liam Martin
i'm guessing economies of scale matters here too
if demand goes up more efficient production gets in place
technology advances we get more efficiency
etc