The purpose of this study was to review the solar photovoltaic industry and examine the main drivers that are accelerating its growth and the formidable barriers that impeding it. A quicker transition to a cleaner, more sustainable energy paradigm is possible without technological breakthrough. This paper finds that in order for this to happen, the divergent energy policies that currently exist need to be changed in order to bring about a more equitable and efficient energy market in order to put the solar photovoltaic industry on an even playing field with fossil fuel fired electricity. The paper carried out an economic analysis that shows the effectiveness of feed-in tariff policies to improve the financial viability of solar PV.