Solar Power

It's my hope that this energy source continues to become more cost-effective and efficient.

Right now, the major problem is the low output of solar panels. It takes quite a bit of sunlight and square footage to produce a substantial amount of electricity for running an entire home. It can be done, but it's not cheap.

If science continued to develop this energy source (which to some degree it is), oil and coal might no longer be required.

Hydrogen sounds like a good idea if it can be produced in a clean manner. Right now, they have to use power from other sources to process hydrogen.

Your thoughts? I'm no expert on this.

Hmm.

The big thing holding solar power back is cost, by a long shot. It's over four times more expensive than other energy sources because of the materials needed to produce solar cells. You'd think since silicon is made from sand, which is one of the most abundant materials on Earth, that it'd be pretty cheap. Even so, it's not.

The other thing, like you said, is the low power output. That, and as you get further away from the equator, the amount of sunlight drops a lot.

If the demand for solar panels were to increase sharply, production costs would go down per unit because they would begin using mass production.

I guess the main push for solar power will come when / if it becomes trendy among the more affluent. If more people who can afford to purchase the solar cells implement them in their homes and make it popular, there's a greater chance that the demand for cheaper solar cells will increase among the not-so-wealthy.

It could be sort of like cell phones. People used to think having a cell phone make a person seem important, so the demand skyrocketed so that everyone could look important [chaw]

I'd be fine with just plain old nuclear power getting more prevalent. It might give people nightmares about disposal, but it's a lot more effecient than what we're doing now. As for solar power, it'd be cool if we could somehow make it useful. Unfortunately, here's another problem: the weather. Given the unreliability of clear skies, it's not the most consistent form of power generation. Not in an atmosphere, anyway. Hmm...

I'd be okay with nuclear power if it wasn't for incidents like Chernobyl... but yeah, if nuclear power was 100% safe, it would be ideal.