The James Bond movie, The man with the golden gun, showed that a solar cell with 95 percent efficiency had been invented by 1973, but is kept classified, so that we can be assured that solar cell efficiency will improve . . .
Yo, Baron: That was a MOVIE. It was FAKE. All James Bond movies are full of technically preposterous nonsense. They do not "assure" anything about anyone. 95% efficient solar cells did not exist in 1973, and they do not exist now.
In fact, solar cells hardly produce any energy. Mainly they function as batteries, moving energy from the solar cell factory to the location where it is needed. Over the life of a solar cell, the cell produces roughly 2 or 3 times more energy than it took to manufacture it. A wind turbine used for 20 years produces about 80 times more energy than it takes to manufacture and build the turbine.
Solar cells are made from scrap silicon rejected by a computer chip manufacturers. If they were not, they would be much more expensive, and they would probably be an energy sink, like ethanol. Solar cell production is small and there is enough scrap silicon for all production, but if we were to expand the use of solar cells we would have to refine silicon from scratch.
- Jed
