When light energy strikes the solar cell, electrons are knocked loose from the atoms in the semiconductor material. If electrical conductors are attached to the positive and negative sides, forming an electrical circuit, the electrons can be captured in the form of an electric current -- that is, electricity.
Wiki 17/10/2014

What is the best efficiency for solar panels, 38 percent? And I think those are the hugely expensive ones put on spacecraft. As long as they are that inefficient, they don't have much of a future.

Mok, my friend, you are not wrong, 2 the extent where you live. here in my country, we see no ''light'', due2 electricity load shedding, all the night long in summer, when the ambient temp is between 38 n 42 deg Celsius. People are going ''solar'', cause there is no hope of cheap energy source in the near future here. It is alot expensive, but noway around.

yes its very good but expensive , while back i came upon a secret weather station high up on remote moorland , its powered by lots of solar arrays and two windturbines for low ligt days of winter ,must be severa thousands pounds worth of solar cells there luckily its very remote and has its own cctv setup.

Fusion is the future. But the distant future and if we can actually make it work If we can then we'll be the masters of our destiny for a thousand years. cr*p loads of cheap safe energy we can do whatever we want with to address the other problems. The main problems we face are largely energy related, if we can generate enough of it and cheap, it'll solve everything.

Problems like destruction of the environment for energy production, desalination for fresh water or moving our planet away from fossil fuels. It would be able to provide enough. If it doesn't work we're in huge trouble in about 50 years. Probably less. But hey I'll probably be dead by then so who cares

The problem with desalination is, what do you do with all that concentrated brine? Many just pump it back into the ocean or sea a few miles from the desalination plant, thus creating a dead area that not even the heartiest brine shrimp cannot survive in. Others pump it into the Earth with high pressure injection wells which may cause shallow earthquakes in the area.

Imho, there should not be only one single form of energy honored. Many forms should. Of course the cleaner the better. Nuclear energy is good, but there are plants like in Japan, that imho shouldnt be. They shouldnt be on a tiny island. EVER. I admire Germany taking action on this. Nplants safe zone is only in deserted areas.

im glad about solar being the future, batteries for my B.O.B are real expensive

You either dump it where it can mix properly, or you can do reverse osmosis and the evaporate the water and sell off the salt. This requires more energy and time which is why it isn't the most popular right now, but when you have energy to burn, it's no big deal.

Easier said than done. Most of the areas with desalination plants don't give a d*mn about the environment and already have salt that is much easier and profitable to get. Energy costs money. Well, energy in the form of electricity, that is.