That's not really how it works. Technologies are either commercially viable or they are not. The thing that enabled windpower and solar power to take off is economic parity with other means of generating power. Photovoltaics and windpower being 'invented' (as if it isn't blatantly obvious that there is energy in wind and solar and that this energy can be captured in a myriad of ways) before a certain date has nothing to do with whether or not we see them today.

Tons of money and effort has been sunk in attempts to create more sources for energy and some of those have paid off and others are still under review. The 'fossil fuel hegemony' is actually quite a large investor in more than a few projects, their product is energy, not a particular kind of energy.