Not that I would necessarily know, but I always heard that the first million was the hardest? You seem to be arguing in support of my point? That is, switch out "first million dollars" for "first 580 gigawatts".

No, that's not how it works.

It's hard in the beginning, because of research and development. After that, you got the technology side covered, you got the processes side covered, all you need is to build and install.

Making the first mobile phones was hard. Making another million mobile phones today: not that hard. Especially if you make a million more of an established model.

No, that's not how it works. Every growth process has limits. Solar has much more limits than mobile phones: land, resources (phones are tiny compared to solar panels), labour (not just production, but also placing the panels and maintaining them)... I reckon if we treat solar panels like mobile phones (throw away every 1.5 years) we won't get far...

Limits only matter when we at least start getting close to reaching those. There is enough land, labor and resources for lots of solar panels while most of us in the western world already have a smartphone and seem to replace them less often due to a seemingly slower tech cycle.

I'm not convinced, solar is only now becoming cost competitive, that means for most of this period it was more expensive than its competitors. Now its getting into the realms of being the cheapest option, so why would growth be harder to come by?

Oversimplifying maybe but renewables are passing the tipping point of being the cheapest energy source without needing subsidies which will make things easier.