Why haven't we put these fuckers on windows and car-windows yet?

Because it's a meme energy source.

Better than windmills, way less maintenance.

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.

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

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.

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...

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?

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/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=105&t=3

we lose 6% just having it done locally

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.

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

US census Stats on # of households dictate everyone could have installation/panel paid first year, feed grid, & give back $ to families with just 10% roof space covered....A on term paper, but professor response was that lobbyists would shoot it down....Austin, TX has program going though for businesses.

The technology is not there yet. It boils down to that the solar panels we have are not very efficient.

They're not effective enough and it looks bad.

I'll stick to my research on muon-catalyzed nuclear fusion thank you very much.

>everyone could have installation/panel paid first year
I thought it was like 20 years

>invest in sunw post split about $4 per stock
>got down to 2.8$ and hovering there for long time
>lost little over 100 bucks due to baby'sfirst investment -tier

s-s-solar panels will rule the mark r-r-right guise?

solar cars are demonstrated to be a stupid idea here: what-if.xkcd.com/17/

I would begin by making mandatory that every new building has solar panels.

And existing building have to install solar panels within the next five years.

Solar panels may be bought via a loan, and interests on loan would be deductible from taxes.

Solar Panels can't even replace the energy required to manufacture them in their average lifespan.

They are, as of right now, a literal energy drain on the system.

The real future of energy is Nuclear Fusion. Once that happens all other forms of energy will be obsolete.