The big difference between solar PV and microelectronics is that there's very little miniaturization achievable in PV. More power requires more area; light conv

The big difference between solar PV and microelectronics is that there's very little miniaturization achievable in PV. More power requires more area; light conversion efficiency increases only slowly over time. The sunlight-to-electricity conversion efficiency of common solar cells has not even doubled since 1980. There's less than a factor of 4 left between the efficiency of panels you can buy for your rooftop today and the maximum efficiency permitted by the laws of nature. That's quite a difference from the past trajectory of microelectronics, where Moore's Law doubled efficiency over and over. That's also the short explanation for why companies with deep experience in microelectronics manufacturing, like Intel, TSMC, or Texas Instruments, did not come to dominate solar PV manufacturing. PV is a very different game. It's about producing huge quantities of doped silicon wafers with little patterning across their surfaces. However, it is true that PV has made enormous strides in reducing manufacturing costs, though aggressive miniaturization was not how it was done. In sunny regions PV now has the lowest O&M costs of any new-build electricity source.