While I tend to agree that solar has a future I don’t believe that it will ever be anything more than a niche energy source. Solar is great for powering road signs, heating water, etc. where the real power comes from a storage device (battery) that the solar panels can recharge when they are producing. Depending on solar to power a small city or any mission-critical endeavor is foolhardy and expensive. Expensive because it takes two power sources to make the power reliable - the solar farm and the backup power generation plant.
The inefficiency and cost effectiveness of solar was well discussed by previous posts. What I’d like to add is the average person of today, in particular the younger generations, have absolutely zero thinking ability. They do not know how to balance a checkbook or run a simple budget to keep from going into debt. They know nothing about how machinery or electricity actually works.
My point is they can be easily duped into thinking solar is free because the sun is free. And when this same bunch is scared to death that global warming will kill them, then to them it’s a no-brainer, that we must have more solar power and no other sources of electricity production.
What they do not realize is they are the ones with no brains.