Cost of solar panels over time: a tale of falling prices
Over a decade ago, in 2009, the cost of a solar panel installation was $8.50 per watt. The solar industry today looks very different: in addition to solar panel efficiency increasing dramatically, solar panel producers have significantly improved their manufacturing processes. Solar installers, too, can deploy solar PV across the United States more efficiently now than they could ten years ago. The result: the price of solar has fallen dramatically, to just $2.81/watt.
The price decreases over the past ten years are a major reason why homeowners are increasingly interested in installing solar panels.
Changes in solar panel cost over time can be explained by Swanson’s Law, which states that the price of solar PV modules decreases by about 20 percent for every doubling in global solar capacity. The law is named after Richard Swanson, founder of high-efficiency solar panel manufacturer SunPower, and indicate a phenomenon seen across many different technologies: new industries face a major learning curve, and as they improve, prices fall.
In this way, solar panel manufacturers aren’t that different from computer manufacturers. Think about how much more expensive, and less powerful, your laptop was in 2009 compared to the technology that’s available today. If solar PV technology continues along the same trend, it’s easy to envision a future where solar is on every rooftop.
https://news.energysage.com/solar-panel-efficiency-cost-over-time/I certainly agree with you in terms of the limited amount of people who can afford it. But as with other technologies, the more popular and mass produced they become, the more the cost will come down making it more affordable to more consumers.
There's much more to the article in the link but I only quoted the parts I thought were pertinent in terms of them becoming more cost effective.
