https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/08/continued-progress-with-dual-layer-solar-cells/
There are still longevity problems, but things continue to get better.
So, I get what you're saying about popular science articles basically imply that the technology is ready to come out next week when it's nowhere near practical for real world use, let alone mass manufacturing. But lots of stuff does eventually come out of the lab. You can buy carbon nanotube wool online right now and there's a pilot plant in Texas coming online this year that's slated to produce 30 tons of the stuff annually. There's graphene in super hydrophobic coatings that you can buy for your car windshield, and graphene is used in a lot of commercial supercapcitors right now.
At one point in time articles like the above were being written about LED light bulbs, and now every light in my house is an LED.
Nothing about that is a technological breakthrough, it’s just production capacity you need for this.
It absolutely is a technological breakthrough. The way that lithography design and manufacturing has been able to improve at the rapid pace it has, for as long as it has, is basically a miracle.