re: discoveries
I think the tech is fairly mature at this point, by which I mean there are plenty of different ways of doing this at a wide range of costs and efficiencies.
Now we need to see somebody take the ball out of the lab and run it to the market. I have predicted that solar power will hit a major turning point very soon, like cell phones did, but it's going to take some company or companies doing the heavy lifting to make it a consumer product, and not just something that exotic test facilities use.