Nor have solar panels become a million times better. When crystalline silicon solar cells were introduced in the 1970s, they converted about 15 percent of the sunlight that hit them into electricity. Today they convert around 25 percent. That’s good progress, but it’s hardly in line with Moore’s Law.
Fraction of sunlight converted to electricity is the wrong measure though. The relevant one for solar displacing other energy-sources is dollars per watt of power, it's fallen from $80 to $0.30 over the last 45 years, which means 15% of progress in price/performance per year. It's a factor of 300 improvement, not less than a doubling like Gates (irrelevant) number would indicate.
At this rate solar already is, or will become cheaper than all other alternatives within the decade. (this is one of the reasons I disagree with Gates about nuclear vs solar)
