In 1954, three American researchers, Gerald Pearson, Calvin Fuller and Daryl Chapin, designed a silicon solar cell capable of a six percent energy conversion efficiency with direct sunlight.
In episode one of Wonders of the solar system from the BBC, Professor Brian Cox said that in one day the sun emits about 400 million million million million watts every second. In his words, this is a million times the power consumption of the United States in a year.
It obviously doesn't require extremely rare or expensive materials to make solar panels. And they were making quite relatively efficient ones in the 1950s. Why is the whole world not now using all of this solar power that is aimed at our planet, going to waste? It's being aimed right at us yet we would sooner drill oil from the ground and dig up parts of our own planet for wasteful, polluting power.
I think it's because the various oil corporations in our world wouldn't want to lose all of their many trillions and trillions of dollars in income. And when you have that much money you can control pretty much anything, even for example certain governments. BP seems to have a huge monopoly on solar panel production at the moment and they will probably keep it all to themselves, selling it at vastly inflated prices (compared to the cost even to manufacture the panels) to the consumer. As opposed to people having solar panels on their own homes and making their own power without having to pay anything. That wouldn't be very much like capitalism, would it?
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