End to All Power Problems

I wish you COULD make silicon solar cells from sand. While sand may be part of the raw materials, the silicon is extremely pure and has to be 'grown' as a pure crystal, usually using the CZ method.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czochralski_process

This is a pretty energy intensive process. Solar cells take a while to 'pay back' this energy investment.

Magfan, Just only one of Chinese solar companies LDK has annual silicon production capacity of 18,000 metric tons (40 million pounds). Countries like Germany, Italy and Czech Republic invest heavily into solar panels. Look at 2009 numbers:

Germany, Italy, Czech Republic = 68% = 4.96 GW
Other Europe = 9% = .66 GW
US = 7% = .51 GW
Japan = 6% = .43 GW
Rest of World = 10% = .73 GW

I know that about 8GW total is not a lot but it is not installed capacity but rather annual demand. It is predicted to jump to 20GW in 2011. 150% growth in 2 years (in slow economy) ain't bad but this is just the beginning.

Solar cells would be great for certain regions of the country, or if they could make them sensitive enough to work everwhere, but alas we are not there yet. Solar and wind, along with a quantum jump forward in the storage of power are the holy grail, and hopefully the future.

Also, those countries you named with Huge Solar % are miniscule as compared to the US as far as power consumption, and their gov'ts have underwritten the cost, so it's some of the most, if not the most expensive power on the planet.

Solar is not an answer right now, it's way too expensive. We are very long natural gas, in fact the US is about to start EXPORTING natural gas, when a few years back we were set to begin importing up to 15% of our natural gas by 2020. Well, thank God for shale gas, now let's use it to get away from foreign oil, and develope exportable technologies using it such as this.

I have been in the power and natural gas business for close to 20yrs now, and I am always shocked by how little people know about the biggest business in the world Energy. These new gas developement, which the US is helping other countries develope as well, could be a bridge from fossil fuels to economically viable sustainable, renewables. Plus, it's a huge new industry. Watch it, it's going to happen.

I simply can't argue with your numbers.
What KIND of silicon does LDK product? Poly? Single Crystal? It matters and makes a big difference.
Solar cells are NOT a panacea cure. They are fairly simple devices but DO require a very pure form of crystal silicon, though there ARE polycrystalline cells of lower efficiency. Polysilicon is easier to make.
Single crystal is grown by the CZ method which is pretty energy intensive, not to mention process critical. The silicon ingots are grown to the approximate diameter of the production line using them....In the old days 3" diameter was common while today? I've seen 8" wafers, but larger are in use.
Poly crystalline are less efficient at electricity production but also less energy and labor intensive to produce.
Once you have the raw material in 'wafer' form, cells are manufactured using techniques and tools familiar to any wafer fabrication worker, engineer or technician.
The other downside to solar cells is that they are less effective as they warm. I don't know the 'derate' for temperature, but hot, sunny desert places are not necessarily the best place for a solar farm. Especially in the summer!

That being said, solar will continue to be a player in the energy future. Both photovoltaic and using solar to heat water......basically a steam boiler run by sunshine.
Wind power where appropriate works well, too. Out near Palm Springs I've driven by several thousand wind generators. Up close, they make a real cool sound which is kind of eerie.
Thermal power from the ground /vulcanism. Biofuels.

They will all be around for a while in various uses.

Not that it matters, but I think Bloom Energy with the 'server' idea is pretty cool. Quiet, with an unknown upside potential, they may be useful.

Macdadtexas - solar is expensive to install but returns investment in 5-10 years while it lasts 25 years. It works even on cloudy days producing about 70% of max output. If only I had power meter that subtracts energy returned to grid I would install solar panels on my house.

Storage is a secondary issue since the peak of the energy usage is the biggest problem. Power stations that pump water from lower to higher basins to release water for the short time of the peak demand called "pumped-storage" are wasting a lot (20%) of energy - just to smooth out the peak thus to lower size (cost) of the main power station. This could be replaced by large solar station that produces energy during peak instead of wasting.

Gas is good and much cleaner than fossil fuels we use now. Some of them like brown coal are even forbidden in many countries. Any solution is better than doing nothing. Even simple measures like solar panels heating water (tubes and parabolic mirrors), that Magfan mentioned, are good and don't require any modification to infrastructure. It used to be popular and there is even one house in my neighborhood that has such panels on the roof.

Magfan - LDK produces high purity polysilicon, monocrystalline and multicrystalline ingots, wafers, cells and modules. There are many such companies but capacity of LDK (50 million pounds of silicon per year) shows what is going to happen soon.