That’s what I’m working on, believe it or not. I’m working on an invention that could dramatically boost the efficiency of solar power conversion (in theory). When I have a working prototype, we’ll see how it proves itself. Right now, the world record efficiency for solar conversion is 40.7%; My goal is to top 60%
Things will really take off when solar is not only comparable to the cost of coal, but when solar supplied electricity becomes cheaper than coal. Given that there are no fuel costs, this cost of solar power is calculated in terms of how long the solar installation takes to pay for itself. If the time it would have to operate to pay for itself in savings exceeds the life of the panel (which is historically the thing that has defeated solar power), solar power won’t make sense economically. The goal is to make a solar engine that will pay for itself by the money saved in the least time possible. The time this takes, of course, is intimately dependent on how expensive conventional power is, and right now, the problem is that coal power is very cheap.
The energy companies have a history of throttling the price of coal and oil to keep us hooked; they lower it enough to make alternatives too expensive to invest in when they see a potential threat, and when the threat dies or has its funding cut and everyone is dependent on coal oil again, they jack the prices up against the helpless market with no alternatives. . . until the pain prompts people to remember all the research that got cut, and they start up programs to find alternatives. At that moment, coal prices drop, and so the cycle continues, with their goal to repress renewables research for as long as they can. What happened in the 70’s oil crisis and the subsequent collapse of oil prices in the 80’s was exactly this: the hidden hand trying to crush development of alternatives. The trick is to vote in politicians who won’t forget. That’s tough, because our election cycle has a 2/4/6 year cycle, but the coal/oil price fluctuations happen on the order of 5-10 years.
I suspect that they did that price pumping thing to combat investment in wind; they’ll do the same to fight efficient solar. The only way to beat them hands down is to develop something that is hands-down super efficient, and unleash it and reveal it only to those who need to know when the oil companies are not expecting it and have their prices are high. That way, decisions can be made without the energy companies getting wind of it with enough time to react and kill the alternatives to their supply.