In a weird way this is the wildest bit. It’s because they don’t have moving parts that really makes them incredibly portable, incredibly easy to mass produce, little-to-no maintenance, magic endless electricity squares. Anything with a turbine is basically impossible to both mass-produce and install on unattended/domestic properties.

From another science is neat perspective, we’ve actually reached insane levels of efficiency. Average panels get about 20% nowadays, degrading to about half that after a couple decades. Top-end commercial panels are about 25% efficient. Experimental panels have claimed up to 40% efficiency in real-world conditions. Plant photosynthesis solar->usable energy is, depending on how you calculate it, somewhere between 3 and 11% efficiency.

I always find this neat. As cool and as futuristic as nuclear energy may seem it’s still just hot thing makes steam to turn wheel same as a fossil fuel plant.

Compared to that, solar panels might as well be magic.