Back in 1977, I went to the library in San Diego one day and found a book on solar cells that described a multi-layer, multi-frequency solar cell that claimed a 60% efficiency for power production. I never heard anything about it until very recently on the Discovery Channel, where they had a segment on those cells. They were all that the book claimed about them, but said that they were too costly to produce to be economically viable.

(Going past my opinions on the destructive power of economics,) I think that economy of scale can make almost any demanded technology economically viable. It's all about investment in initial manufacturing technology and then the production of the product at a high enough rate to bring the price down to a reasonable level. This is beginning to show up in solar farm production with european corporations now creating that exact process bringing the solar farm costs down by leaps and bounds. (also featured in that same solar power show on Discovery.)

The same 'economic' problem exists for the discovery of solar paint a few years ago and applies to the conventional production of 30% efficient solar cells.

Entrenched oil interests are the only thing which are holding back solar and other alternative systems being installed, period.

An 'economic' pundit awhile ago stated on a TV interview that if all those who really wanted solar power and other alternatives would put their money where their interests lay, we could ween off oil in less than twenty years.

I agree. Expecting the oil soaked government to put up the money is not productive. I think the people who have money beyond survival needs should invest in their children's overall future by investing it in alternative power sources. Otherwise the 'economic' system will continue to up the prices on such interests as college costs and cost of living until the common people cannot survive beyond survival living and their children will lose out far more than they would otherwise.

Political action is a secondary force in human affairs. Primary is cooperation in producing a better future for all, on a mass scale. That sidesteps the government's ability to 'bind the mouths of those who tread the grain'. Both literally and figuratively.