I've been interested in solar since I saw a solar powered Casio watch as a kid but haven't kept up with the technology.
The panels are ugly and having to add a panel to get solar energy is clunky. I want to believe, looking at all the devices a smartphone has replaced, that one day this won't be the case.. Then I look at trees, devices that had millions of years to improve solar energy conversion but still rely on solar panels and it calms my passions. But maybe, we could evolve and plug the Calvin cycle into the Krebs cycle! Our skin has a surface of about 2m². We could go solar (would have to walk naked) or cover up and eat food. Maybe will come a time where people who rely on food are the pariahs of society. The "Covered Ones".
I suppose one great revolution would be finding a way to add the photovoltaic effect to materials (paints, fabrics, plastics, etc) or make these materials with the effect embedded. I think there are flexible panels that are being made, but even those look weird. I want it to be a materials property, similar to the antimicrobial property of copper alloys.
The irritating thing with microelectronics is that the die is minuscule and beautiful, but then you have to add pins and pads and a package. Dust is also a problem. It's amazing that a thin film of dust you couldn't even notice without a finger swipe could have such an impact. And then there's the connection between transistors that has to be a certain way.
What would be great would be for the transistor to become a molecule or be packaged in a molecule. Water is water and no matter the phase, the molecules adapt to find their place with respect to each other. The layout needs to be independent of humans' will and answer only to the laws of nature (you don't worry about each molecule when you apply a coat of paint).