>>Solar panels have seen a lot of innovation in the last few decades.
Yes. And the reason that innovation happened is because of the combination of people seeing the importance and potential profits, policy drivers, and funding and interest (it became cool, not just niche) in the field of solar.
When people see that there is money and fame to be made, they get motivated, reallocate resources, which attracts researchers, which make discoveries, which generates an accelerating pace of discovery as more new available knowledge forms the base of exponentially more new connections/discoveries.
It is a feed-forward system, and all it takes is a close-to-ready field of study and the pump being primed. This could definitely have happened earlier.
Yes. And the reason that innovation happened is because of the combination of people seeing the importance and potential profits, policy drivers, and funding and interest (it became cool, not just niche) in the field of solar.
When people see that there is money and fame to be made, they get motivated, reallocate resources, which attracts researchers, which make discoveries, which generates an accelerating pace of discovery as more new available knowledge forms the base of exponentially more new connections/discoveries.
It is a feed-forward system, and all it takes is a close-to-ready field of study and the pump being primed. This could definitely have happened earlier.