Solar Dreams
The Times' Andrew Revkin offered an excellent overview of the problem with solar last month on his blog. It can basically be summed up in four words: too expensive for China.
"We're not going to get people in China to do it, we're not going to get people in India to do it, if it costs 10 percent more than the energy they now pay for," Dr. [Nathan] Lewis [of Caltech] said. "Right now it costs 50 times more."
...Just to avert a small wedge, not even one-tenth, of the anticipated growth in coal burning through 2050 would require perhaps 200 of the "Million Solar Roof" initiatives (that's the moniker for California's highly-publicized effort).
Experts still largely agree that scale remains the hurdle to surmount for solar power, for expanded nuclear power, for use of coal without emissions -- basically for any energy technology option other than "business as usual," in a world heading toward 9 billion people who aspire to a reasonable quality of life.