They have been around long enough to be cheaper. Unless they are made out of a natural material that is rare and hard to find, there is no reason why they should be so expensive. On another note, I think that all low power devices like cell phones and even laptops should have solar panels. Even if it is not enough to fully power the device for a long period of time, it will provide some electricity savings and with millions of people saving a little power adds up.
materials and process... if they could be built in a sweatshops, by kids, in Malaysia, they'd be cheap and everyone would use them
Because most solar cells are made from silicon crystals that is grown very slowly. Growing silicon crystals from pure silicon is an extremely slow and expensive process.
We all would love to have solar panels, I wish I could afford them for my house! The fact of the matter is that the amount of energy used to make solar panels doesn't really make it beneficial. They would have to have a better way of manufacturing them, a way that uses less energy. Basically they don't make up for the energy lost in their production .Despite our efforts there is no fuel like fossil fuel.
Photo okorder /... Notice it costs over $200 and it takes up a sizable amount of space. Plus you have to expose it to bright sun light. Over all this is not something the average consumer wants to spend money on or fuss with. If something is expensive, difficult or inconvenient to use then people won't use it. Just the basic economics of such a device limits its sales never mind its functionality and usability. Even if you made a small one buit into the cover to extend the battery you won't get much of an extension and you will increase the cost of your laptop. Consider how people shop, will they buy the more expensive laptop for a questionable amount of battery extension? Mass production can lower costs but in order to mass produce something you need a demand that will consume what you produce. But if no one wants the item because of the aforementioned issues than you can't justify mass producing the item. This is like the classic which came first Chicken or Egg problem, one doesn't happen without the other. Cost reduction doesn't happen without consumer demand. This is where tax incentives, subsidies, low cost loans and energy buyback contracts come into play in order to spur on demand and jump start mass production. You could also make electricity extremely expensive by taxing oil and carbon so that a Solar Cell becomes economically competitive to very expensive electricity. Problem with this option is the negative impact high energy costs have on economic activity. Just look at what happened a couple of summers ago when gas hit $4/gal. To spur on demand we need to incentives the use of Solar cells (and other alternative energy). This can be done through several means such as subsidies, tax incentives, low interest loans, energy buyback contracts etc...
