This does require prices going down. I think prices in many domains have gone up (a lot) over the last few years, so it doesn’t seem like a lot of evidence about technological progress for solar panels. (Though some people might take it as a warning shot for long-running decay that would interfere with a wide variety of optimistic projections from the past.)
I think it’s not clear whether non-technological factors get cheaper or more expensive at larger scales. Seems to me like “expected cost is below current electricity costs” is a reasonable guess, but “>75% chance of being economically feasible” is not.
My current understanding is that there are plenty of the relevant minerals (and in many cases there is a lot of flexibility about exactly what to use), and so this seems unlikely to be a major driver of cost over the very long term even if short-term supply is relatively inelastic. (Wasn’t this the conclusion last time we had a thread on this?)
This does require prices going down. I think prices in many domains have gone up (a lot) over the last few years, so it doesn’t seem like a lot of evidence about technological progress for solar panels. (Though some people might take it as a warning shot for long-running decay that would interfere with a wide variety of optimistic projections from the past.)
I think it’s not clear whether non-technological factors get cheaper or more expensive at larger scales. Seems to me like “expected cost is below current electricity costs” is a reasonable guess, but “>75% chance of being economically feasible” is not.
My current understanding is that there are plenty of the relevant minerals (and in many cases there is a lot of flexibility about exactly what to use), and so this seems unlikely to be a major driver of cost over the very long term even if short-term supply is relatively inelastic. (Wasn’t this the conclusion last time we had a thread on this?)