Short answers, pulled from the story.
Scientists at Bell Labs developed the first practical silicon solar cell in the 1950s. Gerald Pearson, Calvin Fuller, and Daryl Chapin created the system which achieved an efficiency of 4.5 to 6 percent.
Solar power became the cheapest source of electricity for new installations in most countries by 2025. The cost of utility-scale solar in the United States had plummeted to approximately 25 cents per watt by that year.
The Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in California's Mojave Desert stands as the world's largest solar thermal power plant. This 377-megawatt facility uses thousands of mirrors to focus sunlight onto a central tower.
Concentrated solar power systems use thermal storage to hold heat in molten salts. This allows them to generate electricity even after the sun has set and enables dispatch power over a 24-hour period.
The life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of solar farms are less than 50 grams per kilowatt-hour. This is a fraction of the 1,000 grams emitted by coal-fired plants.
Over 40 percent of global polysilicon production capacity is located in Xinjiang. This dominance of China in solar manufacturing has raised concerns about human rights violations and supply chain security.