While Solar itself has no emissions or toxicity to speak of, processing silicon to get it into the panels and and such has an environmental impact. Yeah, kinda sucks. The latest technology deals with flexible plastic substrates, using lower quality silicon (doesn't have to be processed as well) and even nano-structures; all of which should lower it's overall impact and increase efficiency.

There is a new system which can convert broad spectrum light, including non-visible which gives it an immediate efficiency boost simply because current designs use about 30% of visible IIRC. Plus they are using prisms and other light concentrating methods to make the PV sheets much smaller in size while using the same amount of light. Basically the prism appears full size, but concentrates the light into a PV cell that's a fraction of the size of the original surface area. This cuts down on cost, weight, and environmental impact to produce.

Solar is coming along quite nicely... we just need to see some of these advances in the lab make it into the field. Right now, concentration and increasing usable spectrum are making excellent strides. Bio-immitating and nano are a little way behind, but I have a feeling that increases in technology may soon bring about a revolution in local power generation. The only bad thing is that it might be a bad time to buy because of silicon demand and improvements in design. Those bad boys are usually for 20-30 years, so you want to make the right choices. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />