Do you ever see solar energy being what sci/fi and previous science has made it out to be?

Current (previous?) generation solar cells have been woefully inefficient and costly, but time are changing...

Will solar energy ever become more efficienct/eco friendly than fossil fuels? Will the sun one day be able to fuel our needs?

Solar isn't what it used to be. After grants, you'd pay about $7000 to outfit your house with solar panels. That is, after you switch your appliances out for more efficient models. A little pricey in the short run, but it's well worth it to be self sufficient and not have to make that payment each month to the power companies.

At Cal Expo, about half of the parking lot is shaded by what looks like large carports. Look closer, and you can see that it's solar panels that move slowly during the day to catch the sun's rays. According to their figures, it's enough power to fuel a nice sized neighborhood. At a city run swimming complex nearby, the shaded bleachers have solar panels on top. Heck, you can even run electric fences and automobiles with solar energy now. They even make a solar roofing that you can lay straight onto plywood, no asphalt roofing required. It looks like the nice metal roofing that you see in fire-prone areas.

We're planning to build a house in the future out of strawbales (that's another thread in itself) and we'd like to be completely off the grid. It's a money saving measure, but mostly we'd like to be self sufficient and not have to rely on others to handle something so important.

The interesting thing about solar energy is that we're moving in the right direction. Last I read we are about 2-2.5 times the cost of 'traditional' energy production, but that is also for large scale application. I am not sure how it scales in the short run.

At UCLA a lot of the buildings have solar energy, to help in energy production (we're 50/50 on grid off grid production) and one of the newer dorms uses solar energy for water heating.

The idea of neighborhood level power generation, from solar to hydrogen is a really exciting (nother thread?) prospect...it really is the next step in deregulation...

I think solar energy represents the future, if we just can funnel more resources that way, it just makes sense. I mean, think about it, the sun shines regardless of what we do, and if you can harness, store, and retrieve that power, it is essentially limitless.

there are no guarantees the sun will shine tommorrow

Originally posted by Manu
I think solar energy represents the future, if we just can funnel more resources that way, it just makes sense. I mean, think about it, the sun shines regardless of what we do, and if you can harness, store, and retrieve that power, it is essentially limitless.

:werd:

free energy, who can refuse that? it'll take a setup that's somewhat affordable and efficient to get ppl to install 'em in thier homes... R&D is the key...

Solar and wind may be a great way to store energy as hydrogen for transportation. Otherwise, it's just not dependable enough.

Wafer fabrication costs need to be reduced to produce satellite grade fuel cells for terrestrial use, and with demand the manufacturing capacity to do that would be developed.