Solar credits or R&D?

I found an interesting article in Discover magazine: Top 100 Stories of 2011 #46: Solar Power in Peril
 (January/February 2012, Page 57)

It starts off with talking about Solyndra's bankruptcy and how the finger of blame gets pointed to the Chinese with their less-expensive solar panels and the economic problems in Europe which is 80% of the solar market.

But it goes on to say: "Most photovoltaic panels on the market today convert less than 14 percent of the energy in sunlight into electricity, a number that has barely budged since the 1980s."  It then indicates that the low efficiency makes for high infrastructure costs (land and installation) and how that makes it hard for PV to compete.

The article concludes: "The lesson of Solyndra, then, is not to dump solar subsidies, as some politicians have suggested, but to redirect that money into R & D, where it will spur innovation
—the true solution to solar’s demand woes."

I agree completely.  Hawaii Lawmakers might want to ask themselves what has Hawaii's Solar Credit bought?  Presumably the purpose of the credit was to break the "chicken and egg" cycle of adoption.  (Why is it so expensive?  There's no mass production because no one is buying it.  Why is no one buying it?  Because it's so expensive.)

But in the world production of Solar equipment, does Hawaii represent a major market?  A market, yes.  But I seriously doubt that it represents such a huge market as to drive down the costs of the solar.  Instead, what I think it's bought us is a industry completely dependent on government subsidies and a bunch of inefficient first-generation PV installations.

We'd probably be better off in the long run by spending the solar credit money on a research program at the UH on how to create better panels rather then expecting that the mass purchase of old and expensive technology will spur the needed R&D.  The UH Department of Engineering does have a program that covers solid-state devices.  If UH does pulls off something patentable, the licensing fees could help bring needed income to the state. 

Disclosure: other then seeing our tax money spent wisely, I have no financial interest in research at UH.