I hear them saying things about how a small increase in solar panel efficiency is going to completely and rapidly “cure us of our fossil fuel addiction.”
We have roughly doubling in solar panel efficiency every 7 years. That’s not what I would call “small increase”.
Even if solar panels were 100% efficient it would not change the overall picture very much. Solar panels are expensive and do not use space efficiently.
With efficiency I meant the amount you pay per kilowatt hour. It’s a variable that has seen consistent doubling every 7 years over the last two decades.
Space on top of most buildings is unused and there are huge deserts that aren’t used.
We have roughly doubling in solar panel efficiency every 7 years. That’s not what I would call “small increase”.
Even if solar panels were 100% efficient it would not change the overall picture very much. Solar panels are expensive and do not use space efficiently.
With efficiency I meant the amount you pay per kilowatt hour. It’s a variable that has seen consistent doubling every 7 years over the last two decades.
Space on top of most buildings is unused and there are huge deserts that aren’t used.
Does the include the subsidies many governments have been providing to solar?
Subsidies per kilowatt hour didn’t raise exponentially. I’m not sure to what extend they are factored out.
Solar is also not the only form of energy that get’s subventioned. In Germany we used to pay billions per year in coal subventions.
They started from zero, so it’s technically super-exponential.