2 layer solar pv is making 40% conversion, with transpartent perovskite and traditional pv and is going into gigawatt production now. Projection is for 50% efficiency with in 5 years, meaning that standard sized pannels will be makine 1000watts peak,in the first run pannels. Batteries are also improving at a ferocious pace, and can be built to any scale without exotic, toxic or expensive materials. And true solid state batteries are also becoming available. Silcone carbide high frequency transformers are replacing old tech copper with iron core units and can be built to any scale , are more efficient, and flexible in use, and will be much cheaper at scale. And not one bit of this gear needs to be cooled , most of it is completly solid state with NO moving parts, and even sodium batteries are hermeticly sealed and have very low fire risk with no toxicity. Nukes are pure liability, wind is mechanical, oil is carbon and war, hydro is already maxed out and vulnerable to varios problems,but solar pv is so ridiculously reliable at what is does that it makes watching paint dry exciting by comparison, which is the same for the rest of an all solid state energy generation storage and distribution grid, it's boringly inert, things only happen at sub atomic scale, there may be a soft humming sound from some of it, thats it. Ordinary people build and assemble most of it useing average non heroic sized equipment. And we have no real, implimentable alternative to solar and batteries, so you will get used to it.
damnesian•51m ago
And the human race may have to finally adopt Buckminster Fuller's plan of a single connected global energy grid if they want to survive the extreme challenges we've virtually guaranteed climate change will present.
That is, of course, as soon as all of homo sapiens accepts the reality of it.