And you think the manufacturing just spontaneously improved? Governments worldwide have invested heavily into solar production in the last 20-30 years. Cheap panels today are a direct result of that.

Do you think manufacturing improvements were government subsidised? Does China (the solar powerhouse @78% of the world's supply) get a direct kickback from your government? Perhaps it's market based.

https://www.sunsave.energy/solar-panels-advice/solar-energy/...

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marketeconomy.asp

The Chinese government invested $818 billion in solar energy in 2024 alone, but sure, keep telling me about your magical free market.

Could you provide a reference? The only $818B I can find.. is a purchase of $818B of renewables, not just solar and not a subsidy/tax break. Perhaps you have a better source. Their 887GW of solar capacity alone costs $887B at current market rates.

https://deepnewz.com/china/china-leads-global-clean-energy-i...

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chinas-solar-wind-po...

This is well studied so it is you that is confidently wrong.

The government funded research and market incentives preceded the mass manufacture.

> In terms of government policy, Trancik says, policies that stimulated market growth accounted for about 60 percent of the overall cost decline, so “that played an important part in reducing costs.” Policies stimulating market growth globally included measures such as renewable portfolio standards, feed-in tariffs, and a variety of subsidies. Government-funded research and development in various nations accounted for roughly 30 percent — although public R&D played a larger part in the earlier years, she says.

"Explaining the plummeting cost of solar power

Researchers uncover the factors that have caused photovoltaic module costs to drop by 99 percent."

https://news.mit.edu/2018/explaining-dropping-solar-cost-112...