I keep looking for a history that might provide some insight into what the big hurdles were and how they were overcome, aside the hurdle of finding the investment, and it's weird how there's not long form articles plastered everywhere telling the story like there is for chip manufacturing, but they never cross my desk.
UNSW Sydney's Martin A. Green's brief "How Did Solar Cells Get So Cheap?" has some good leads I need to follow up on. Any others?
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S254243511930090X