As prices fell, a large commercial market was created. Chip production skyrocketed, and prices continued to plummet. Today, millions of people have more computational power sitting on their desks than NASA had available for the entire Apollo space program in the 1960s. If the government had not purchased huge quantities of computer chips before they were cheap enough for commercial applications, the technology might have never become cost-effective. The information revolution would have been delayed, perhaps indefinitely.
Solar cells are an astonishingly attractive way to make electricity.
Moreover, solar cells produce zero carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas. Although the price of solar cells has already fallen about fortyfold, the technology remains about three times too expensive to play a central role as one of the most important power sources in the United States or other industrialized countries. BUT THIS is a problem we know how to solve. As with computer chips, every time that the volume of solar cells has increased, the cost has fallen. The market already is there, just waiting for the price of solar cells to drop.