I find myself digging the shift that has taken place on the Real Engineering channel.
Brian McManus - the host of Real Engineering - has been putting in a ton of work to step up the video's quality and the content's depth. I find myself learning a whole bunch of new stuff in every video that he's posting.
In this one, McManus details the reasons that the solar energy striking most photovoltaic solar cells is only turned into electricity at a lab-tested 20% efficiency - and even lower 18% real-world efficiency.
This is due to light being reflected, the threshold energy necessary for silicon to release electrons, heat build up, adding metal contacts which block light hitting the cell itself, oxygen defects in the silicon wafers itself.
...and there's some awesome explanation (along with animation) of how p-type and n-type semiconductors are used to produce voltages in solar cells.
The Real Engineering videos do tend toward higher level concepts nowadays, but they're brilliantly cited and clearly explained.
They're good stuff, man.
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