[Carry_Okie]

One must also look at solar cell efficiency as a system including both storage hysteresis and junction losses when converting it to AC.

It may eventually be a practical power source for remote locations where line losses and maintenance are expensive, but in many of those applications it would rightly have to compete with bio-mass cogeneration.

[MainFrame65]

No question. But this does represent a significant increase in electrical output from solar energy input. And if I understand it correctly, this is due not so much to efficiency of conversion but to the ability to convert a broader spectrum of light to usable electricity. This might also mean less sensitivity to haze, pollution, or cloud cover than current solar cells.

So depending on cost, when they are finally comercially available, these might make remote and portable power more useful, as well as more readily available.

However, solar simply does not work as baseload power due to its inherent unreliability. Continuous, reliable power from solar would require enough storage to exceed the longest outage anticipated, plus enough excess capacity to fill that storage in the shortest availability period anticipated.

We simply MUST get over our irrational attitude toward nuclear power, and build the capacity we need. And for the time when natural fossil fuels become scarce and expensive, we need the capacity to replace that energy as well.