MIT Study suggests current solar power tech is good enough

[Igel]

5. Much quicker in what way?

In investment--by which they mean build-out, not R&D?

We'd have repeated the mistakes with the Internet and credit-card technology. We're where we are because we built out our infrastructure with developing tech. If we'd waited a few years, we'd have invested billions in building out using better tech. Now we have the infrastructure and the incentive to replace it is outweighed by the cost of duplicating the effort. In the case of the Internet build-out, it was subsidized. Perhaps waiting a bit would have been wiser. In the case of the credit-card tech infrastructure, that was mostly privately funded, but regulated to enforce inter-compatibility and reduce the amount of diversity and innovation as it came along. Even now we'd probably need new regs for chip technology.

As for R&D, I was told when I was a kid that in 10 years we'd have fusion. Others want ponies or flying cars. I want fusion. It's been 43 years since I was excited about having fusion by the time I finished college. Now I'm 56. A couple of milestones, predicted to be reached by the time I was 15 or 16, have been passed--mostly in the last 5 years. But dozens of milestones were to have been passed by 1985 and simply weren't--and couldn't have been. You pour billions into R&D and, well, there are only so many labs, so many researchers, and so many novel ideas that can be tested--and they all take time to test. in the '70s there were far fewer labs, researchers, and novel ideas for both fusion and for photovoltaics than there are now.