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> They are fairly different industries

Funding for each may actually benefit the others. For example, FLiBe salt is being considered as a coolant in some Gen IV fission, as well as compact fusion and concentrated solar. Production will increase if there is a definite market for it, making it easier to obtain.

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Annual world production of beryllium is around 200 tonnes. Any solution using FLiBe is not scalable.

I very much doubt FLiBe was ever seriously considered for solar applications.

What about economies of scale? Wouldn't we expect as demand rose, more suppliers and production would also come about?

Total world Be resource is estimated to be 100,000 tons, although that's likely an underestimate. Still, the MSRE (a 7.4MW(th) reactor) used about a ton of beryllium in the fuel and secondary coolant salts. The world would need several million times the thermal power output of the MSRE to replace fossil fuels.

The ARC fusion reactor concept would require even more Be per MW(th) of output.

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