The cost of solar panels has dropped by more than 99 percent since the 1970s, enabling widespread adoption of photovoltaic systems that convert sunlight into electricity, according to an interesting new research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

A comprehensive MIT study has identified the specific innovations behind this dramatic transformation, revealing that technical advances across a web of diverse research efforts and industries played a pivotal role in making solar energy economically viable worldwide.

Cross-industry innovation network

The research, published in PLOS ONE, demonstrates that key innovations often originated outside the solar sector entirely, including advances in semiconductor fabrication, metallurgy, glass manufacturing, oil and gas drilling, construction processes, and even legal domains.

“Our results show just how intricate the process of cost improvement is, and how much scientific and engineering advances, often at a very basic level, are at the heart of these cost reductions,” study senior author Jessika Trancik said in a media statement. “A lot of knowledge was drawn from different domains and industries, and this network of knowledge is what makes these technologies improve.”

Trancik, a professor in MIT’s Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, led the research team that identified 81 unique innovations affecting photovoltaic system costs since 1970, ranging from improvements in antireflective coated glass to the implementation of fully online permitting interfaces.

Strategic Implications for Industry

The findings could prove instrumental for renewable energy companies making R&D investment decisions and help policymakers identify priority areas to accelerate manufacturing and deployment growth.

The research team included co-lead authors Goksin Kavlak, now a senior energy associate at the Brattle Group, and Magdalena Klemun, currently an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, along with former MIT postdoc Ajinkya Kamat and researchers Brittany Smith and Robert Margolis from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Key findings

Building on mathematical models previously developed to analyze engineering technologies’ effects on photovoltaic costs, researchers combined quantitative cost modelling with detailed qualitative analysis of innovations affecting materials, manufacturing, and deployment processes.

“Our quantitative cost model guided the qualitative analysis, allowing us to look closely at innovations in areas that are hard to measure due to a lack of quantitative data,” Kavlak said in a media statement.

The team conducted structured literature scans for innovations likely to affect key cost drivers such as solar cells per module, wiring efficiency, and silicon wafer area. They then grouped innovations to identify patterns and tracked industry origins and timing for each advance.

Module vs. Balance-of-system innovations

The researchers distinguished between photovoltaic module costs and balance-of-system (BOS) costs, which cover mounting systems, inverters, and wiring. While PV modules are mass-produced and exportable, many BOS components are designed and built locally.

“By examining innovations both at the BOS level and within the modules, we identify the different types of innovations that have emerged in these two parts of PV technology,” Kavlak added.

The analysis revealed that BOS costs depend more heavily on “soft technologies”—nonphysical elements such as permitting procedures—which have contributed significantly less to cost improvements compared to hardware innovations.

“Often, it comes down to delays. Time is money, and if you have delays on construction sites and unpredictable processes, that affects these balance-of-system costs,” Trancik said.

Industry cross-pollination

The research found that innovations from semiconductor, electronics, metallurgy, and petroleum industries played major roles in reducing both PV and BOS costs. BOS costs were additionally impacted by advances in software engineering and electric utilities.

Notably, while most PV panel innovations originated in research organizations or industry, many BOS innovations were developed by city governments, U.S. states, or professional associations.

“I knew there was a lot going on with this technology, but the diversity of all these fields and how closely linked they are, and the fact that we can clearly see that network through this analysis, was interesting,” Trancik said in a media statement.

“PV was very well-positioned to absorb innovations from other industries—thanks to the right timing, physical compatibility, and supportive policies to adapt innovations for PV applications,” Klemun added.

Quantifying impact

To demonstrate their methodology’s practical applications, researchers estimated specific innovations’ quantitative impact. For example, wire sawing technology introduced in the 1980s led to an overall PV system cost decrease of $5 per watt by reducing silicon losses and increasing manufacturing throughput.

Future applications and computing power

The analysis highlighted the potential role of enhanced computing power in reducing BOS costs through automated engineering review systems and remote site assessment software.

“In terms of knowledge spillovers, what we’ve seen so far in PV may really just be the beginning,” Klemun said, pointing to robotics and AI-driven digital tools’ expanding role in driving future cost reductions and quality improvements.

The research team plans to apply this methodology to other renewable energy systems and further study soft technology to identify processes that could accelerate cost reductions.

“Through this retrospective analysis, you learn something valuable for future strategy because you can see what worked and what didn’t work, and the models can also be applied prospectively. It is also useful to know what adjacent sectors may help support improvement in a particular technology,” Trancik said. “Although the process of technological innovation may seem like a black box, we’ve shown that you can study it just like any other phenomena.”

The research provides crucial insights for understanding how complex technological systems evolve and offers a roadmap for accelerating innovation in renewable energy and other critical technologies through strategic cross-industry collaboration.

India’s ambitious Green Hydrogen Mission aims to position the country as a global clean energy leader by 2030. However, high costs, infrastructure gaps, and regulatory challenges pose significant hurdles to its success.

At the recently held World Hydrogen Summit in Rotterdam, a major port city in the Netherlands located on the North Sea coast, India’s commitment to renewable energy and green hydrogen was on full display. Santosh Kumar Sarangi, Secretary at India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, outlined an ambitious vision that has begun to gain attention not only in Asia but also across the global clean energy dialogue.

India, now boasting more than 223 GW of installed renewable energy capacity, including 108 GW from solar and 51 GW from wind, is one of the fastest-growing clean energy markets worldwide. The country aims to become energy self-reliant by 2047 and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2070.

To help realize this vision, India launched the National Green Hydrogen Mission in 2023 with an initial outlay of $2.4 billion USD. The mission seeks to:

• Enable domestic demand creation for green hydrogen,
• Provide incentives for electrolyzer manufacturing and hydrogen production,
• Achieve 5 million metric tonnes (MMT) of annual green hydrogen output by 2030,
• Eliminate around 50 MMT of CO₂ emissions annually,
• Attract $100 billion USD in investment, and
• Generate over 600,000 jobs.

So far, India has made significant headway. Production capacities of 862,000 tonnes per annum have been allocated to 19 companies. Another 15 firms have received approvals to manufacture electrolyzers with a combined capacity of 3,000 MW per year. Pilot projects have already begun in key sectors like steel, mobility, and shipping. Additionally, a Green Hydrogen Certification framework has been introduced to establish standards and accountability.

Three key ports have been earmarked as future green hydrogen hubs: Kandla Port, located on the west coast of India in the state of Gujarat, Paradip Port, situated on the east coast in Odisha, along the Bay of Bengal, and Thoothukudi Port (also known as Tuticorin Port), located in Tamil Nadu on the southeastern coast of India. Fifteen Indian states have also announced specific policies to encourage the green hydrogen ecosystem.

The uncomfortable truth

Despite this enthusiasm, India’s green hydrogen ambitions face serious and structural challenges — many of which are deeply rooted in the country’s energy and infrastructure landscape.

1. High production costs
   Green hydrogen remains significantly more expensive than grey hydrogen (produced using fossil fuels), largely due to high renewable energy and electrolyser costs. Without competitive pricing, widespread industrial adoption will lag.
2. Fragmented regulatory environment
   India still lacks a fully standardized, national regulatory framework for green hydrogen — an issue that discourages global investors and slows deployment.
3. Inadequate infrastructure
   India’s energy grid and hydrogen storage and distribution infrastructure are still underdeveloped. The absence of pipelines, refuelling stations, and efficient transport mechanisms could stall commercial-scale projects.
4. Over-reliance on policy push
   While the Green Hydrogen Mission is promising, its success currently depends heavily on government subsidies and tenders. The challenge will be sustaining momentum once the initial wave of public funding tapers off.
5. Geopolitical competition
   India is not alone in its ambitions. Countries like Australia, the EU, Japan, and the Gulf states are investing heavily in green hydrogen, often with better-established technology ecosystems and deeper financing mechanisms. India will need to move swiftly and strategically to carve out a global leadership role.

A global green hydrogen player?

India’s potential to become a global green hydrogen powerhouse is real, bolstered by its vast renewable energy capacity, policy intent, and growing private sector participation. But the road ahead requires more than vision — it demands de-risked investments, integrated regulation, infrastructure development, and international collaboration.

If India manages to overcome its internal structural constraints and leverage its strengths, it could well transition from being an energy importer to becoming a global exporter of clean energy — redefining its economic and environmental trajectory in the process.

Engineers at MIT have unveiled a potentially game-changing method to produce hydrogen that could drastically reduce the carbon footprint associated with the fuel’s production — a critical step in realizing hydrogen’s promise as a clean energy solution.

Their research, published in the peer-reviewed journal, Cell Reports Sustainability, combines seawater, recycled aluminum from soda cans, and a rare-metal alloy to generate hydrogen with a significantly lower environmental impact.

A full life-cycle analysis by the research team shows the process emits just 1.45 kilograms of carbon dioxide per kilogram of hydrogen produced — a dramatic drop from the 11 kilograms typically emitted by fossil-fuel-based methods.

“This work highlights aluminum’s potential as a clean energy source and offers a scalable pathway for low-emission hydrogen deployment in transportation and remote energy systems,” Aly Kombargi, the paper’s lead author said in a media statement.

A mechanical engineer, Dr. Kombargi had received their doctoral degree fairly recently. Their fellow coauthors include MIT researchers, Brooke Bao and Enoch Ellis. Whereas Douglas Hart, the professor in mechanical engineering, was cited as senior author.

A Clean Cycle

The MIT team first made headlines last year when they demonstrated a lab-scale reaction that turned seawater and aluminum treated with gallium-indium into hydrogen gas. The novelty lies in how the alloy strips aluminum of its protective oxide layer, allowing it to react with water and produce pure hydrogen. Crucially, the salt in seawater helps the gallium-indium alloy to precipitate out and be reused, adding to the process’s sustainability.

To evaluate its real-world viability, the researchers conducted a cradle-to-grave analysis of the process — from sourcing recycled aluminum to transporting the resulting hydrogen. They used Earthster, a life-cycle assessment platform, to calculate emissions and economic costs across various scenarios.

Their lowest-emission scenario relies on secondary (recycled) aluminum and readily available seawater, producing hydrogen at around $9 per kilogram — a price that matches other emerging green hydrogen technologies powered by solar or wind.

A New Model for Hydrogen Infrastructure

Unlike traditional hydrogen production, which requires complex storage and transport infrastructure, the MIT method could simplify the supply chain.

In the envisioned commercial model, aluminum pellets treated with gallium-indium would be transported — rather than the hydrogen itself — to fueling stations near coastal areas. There, the pellets would be combined with seawater to generate hydrogen on demand.

This approach not only sidesteps the risks of transporting volatile hydrogen gas, but also produces a potentially valuable byproduct: boehmite, an aluminum-based mineral used in semiconductors and industrial materials. Selling this byproduct could further reduce production costs.

“There are a lot of things to consider,” Kombargi noted, “but the process works — which is the most exciting part. And we show that it can be environmentally sustainable.”

Electric Bikes and Beyond

The team has already created a prototype reactor, about the size of a water bottle, capable of generating enough hydrogen to power an electric bike for hours. They have also demonstrated the system’s capacity to fuel a small car and are exploring underwater applications, including powering boats or autonomous submersibles using surrounding seawater.

As nations race to decarbonize energy systems, this MIT breakthrough points to a novel, scalable solution — one that turns common materials into a clean fuel source and may help bridge the gap to a hydrogen-powered future.