[Aurel]

Originally Posted by Tim Hancock

With enough large enough tax payer subsidies, these do work for people. I wonder if the govt will help pay again 15 years or so down the road when the cells need replacing when their output diminishes from exposure.

By then, the combination of mass production and new technologies will make them financially viable without subsidies. It is considered that a production cost of less then $0.5/Wp is competitive with oil or coal electricity. Silicon is challenged to achieve that, because of the high refining energy cost for making pure enough silicon. But other semiconductors, such as CdS/CdTe, do not have such high production costs. 10% efficient Modules produced by first solar are already at 1$/Wp, and they are cloning factories like crazy. People need to understand what is expensive in photovoltaic technology, and how cost can and will be reduced.