Cheaper solar panels could create large amounts of value for the industry's customers, but if sellers have no pricing power they will only capture a small fract

Cheaper solar panels could create large amounts of value for the industry's customers, but if sellers have no pricing power they will only capture a small fraction of that value, possibly negative if sellers end up preferring a small loss on the sale to no sale at all. As Warren Buffett observes, the problem with technological improvements from an investor's perspective is that they usually happen in industries with no pricing power and the customer ends up reaping the cost savings. Great if you're a customer, of course. In the long run this can theoretically reduce investment in an industry. In practice, though, it looks like at least some investors are sufficiently optimistic that they'll throw capital at the industry anyway. That's how the optical fiber of the Internet backbone got paid for. Only fools try to capture all the value they create (then the other person has no motive to engage in the transaction), but it really isn't enough to create value, you've got to be able to capture at least some of it, or there's no feedback loop of reinvestment.