The analysis on Solar is utter bunk. The reason the prices are dropping is a collapse in demand as governments are cutting subsidies.
They are still nowhere near competitive against traditional power sources.
It is getting close in areas with lots of sun and the maximum power load occuring during the sunniest parts of the day!
Not quite as bad as you say. The price drop is largely due to the Chinese flooding the market with cheap panels, as well as economies of scale in production as demand has actually grown.
The panels themselves now can be had (in quantity) for less than $1.00 per watt of output. Of course, there are other costs for installation, hardware, wiring, inverters, etc. But large-scale commercial installs are now pricing in the range of $2.50-$3.00 per watt - all in. This equates to a pay-back of 9 or 10 years based on today’s rates in certain areas of the country. That comparison assumes the power utilities’ rates stay constant - which they’re unlikely to do. These sorts of panels are warranted to generate 80% of rated output after 25 years.
You still do have a major issue of day/night and clouds/sun, and the most efficient battery technology today still loses 30% of input power. Unless this is solved, or dramatically improved, solar will only be a supplemental source of energy - not THE source of energy.