[ExI] Oil will never run out

[Jeff Davis]

Because solar cells started out silicon-based and expensive --
relative to other modes of electricity generation -- folks have become
accustomed to the idea that "that is the way things are" and that is
"the way things will always be."  Silicon PV is the way things are,
and will always be, and that is: expensive.  Mistake.  Common mistake,
easy mistake, understandable mistake, but a mistake nonetheless.

Think economics.  Think Cost Per Kilowatt Hour.

Edison invented systematized R&D and then he invented the
incandescent light.  But he could not have invented, or for that
matter imagined the LED.  The tech just wasn't there.

Silicon PV suggests in principle a new electrical generation paradigm,
but fails to surmount the economics barrier.  Once it does, the new
paradigm will be here.  Once PV comes in plastic sheeting on a roll
that becomes the topmost roofing layer, the power problem will
disappear and humans will look for something else to obsess over.

New efficiency benchmark for dye-sensitized solar cells
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/epfd-neb062708.php

Best, Jeff Davis

   "Everything's hard till you know how to do it."
                           Ray Charles