How efficient can solar get?

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It seems like the price of solar is still a ways off from really being worth what it costs, how much better can they get, or are we close to the limits of what solar can do?

Solar has been well "worth it" for around 15 years. To those who are off grid with it, and for the most part did it themselves. Those systems, like ours paid for themselves years ago and the savings have gone to, with us, going mortgage free. We have seen people who can not think in longer term or have no DIY skills, balk at the initial cost. We have seen where so called thin film and nano tech were supposed to make it so cheap "everyone could be on solar". That myth has not panned out. Much of the world's population, besides being way too big for this planet, live in ecologically wrong places dependent near totally on fossil fuels to survive.
The efficiency of the panels has been fine for roof top or pole mount installations to pay for themselves in time, in the right locations. That time dependent on if they did not get hit by profiteers in both the materials and installation. DIYers have generally paid off their systems in 6 years. Those with bigger than needed systems or who hired others to install, or got hit by profiteers without shopping around, have their systems pay for themselves in 12 to 20 years.
Part of the problem is the lack of teaching useful skills in many high schools. Some of it may be parents that could not pass down useful skills to their children. Economic problems with their roots in overpopulation play a large part, and so does what-the-market-will-bear economics of greed.

Ok thanks for the insight, I think a ten year or so payback is not so bad really, and it IS true that a healthy planet is more important than the initial cost of solar. Thank you Val and nrdthxpr!