Environmental aspects of solar cell etching

[Beowulf]

Why would the Desert be the only place? We shouldn't use Solar at all and go full Nuclear, really. Wouldn't erosion and harsher conditions in places like Nevada and Arizona require more frequent replacement of said solar cells anyway?

What don't you have in deserts? Clouds. What will result in a drastic reduction in power from solar cells? Clouds.

[tharkûn]

Why would the Desert be the only place? We shouldn't use Solar at all and go full Nuclear, really. Wouldn't erosion and harsher conditions in places like Nevada and Arizona require more frequent replacement of said solar cells anyway?

Clouds, and worse precipitation are a continious bane for solar power. There should also be less problem with animals, kids throwing rocks, etc. All the really good numbers for solar come from deserts with really weak average winds.

Found my own answer to my question about the usage of diamond in solar cells. Does anyone think such a thing would be viable in terms of economics and whatnot?

For terrestrial use? I forsee many problems. In space you don't have to worry about contamination and pollution, vibration is far more readily controllable. Nanoscale features are really impressive for some things, but they tend to be fragile when dealing with macroscopic stress levels. Even trace amounts of contamination will dick over efficiency. Isolating the cell from vibration may be required as well (driving up cost). Heating metal up to 1,000 C in open atmosphere is just begging for trouble and decreased useful lifespan.

Building a design which can withstand all the above problems, and that mass producing it (nanostructures are notoriously expensive to mass produce) seems to be decades away from economic viability, if it ever will be.