Nanosolar has a manufacturing facility churning out flexible solar cells on aluminum foil. They claim they could produce electricity at five to six cents per kilowatt hour, which is 3-4 times less expensive than current methods. This brings solar cells electricity generation down to the same cost as coal. Now why hasn’t this gotten the attention of the US government..?
A Day in the Life of a Presson... 
Not just promising, but in production. I think the customers will drive demand, not the government – unless research needs to continue (that seems to be where government usually provides value-added).