How solar cell manufacturing differs from conventional wafer & chip manufacturing? Cannot there be economies-of-scope explored to bring down solar panel costs? "Lower demand and higher prices in Solar" the well known chicken-and-egg problem is supposed to be broken by simultaneous increase in demand and supply and reduction in costs. One key hypothesis is that with increase in demands the production unit can draw economies of scale and improved technology of manufacture of silicon and cells.

However I fail to understand that with so much advancement in semiconductors driven by so wide electronic industry, is this still remain a mystery to be solved? What exactly distinguishes a wafer/cell manufacturing of a solar with a semiconductor industry? Cannot be there economies-of-scope to be explored?

Someone with direct experience in solar cell manufacturing, please share your experience and would be great if could share the process details and how it differs from intel chip process.