Solar is about to blow up and not to save the world but because the world’s energy market is double what the world’s agricultural market is, follow the money baby. I won’t bore you with the details but there are companies in various countries making advancements so that panels can be cheap, many times more efficient, last longer and need very little sunlight. Some of the technology doesn’t require traditional panels, is clear and can be sprayed onto anything or integrated into things like windows. Once it gets past the cost/benefit threshold it will become mainstream rather than a novelty. What you read was likely about the thin film (like window tint film) which is pretty promising and dirt cheap to produce or the MEG (multiple exiticon generation), simply put, more energy from less sun, you don’t even need sun, just UV. I think the next genration of solar due out in a few years will be cheap enough that rebates won’t be needed for it to make fiscal sense to people. The rough estimates for residential of the new tech is just a few thousand dollars and a 50 year lifespan, with a break even point of a year or two, if that does come to market it will be immensly popular.