The problem is the gov’t always pushes instead of pulls.Ask KalimGoodman if he's ever heard of Solyndra and the lesson of government involvement of pushing technology and the boondoggle waste of money when government puts its money on the wrong horse. Your point of allowing free markets to do their thing is the critical point.
Take the $500BB Obama wasted on Solyndra and give rebates for using US solar panels to make the price the same as Chinese panels. Ramp those rebates down on a schedule putting pressure on US producers to get more efficient. Let them build scale, efficiencies and get more competitive.
Oh, and let us mine the raw materials here so we can stop relying on China, India and Africa by changing the EPA policies.