The main reason that most "experts" under estimate the rates of adoption for solar (and many other technologies) is they do not understand exponential growth as it applies to technology. Solar is following a fairly consistent pattern over the last 30 years. The problem with growth is that a doubling or tripling of placements when you have 5 isnt going to have much of an effect. Now that solar is over 1% of the energy production and most governments on the planet are implementing some kind of renewable regulations to phase out fossil fuels, we are going to see a radical jump in usage.
I read a headline today that some scientists believe they uncovered a material which could make solar conversation rates similar to that of plants...what a breakthrough that would be.
That would be an incredible breakthrough. Thank you for sharing so much info with us!