Update on Solar Power

Digging into this subject some more, I came across Bright Source Energy, a private company developing solar power. Google is one of the investors, as well as several other energy companies and venture capital companies. 

Bright Source builds and operates 'power tower' solar plants that use a field of flat mirrors to focus sunlight on a collector mounted on a tower. You can watch a short video on their technology here. They claim the lowest cost per watt of any solar power generation technology.

I also found out that there are quite a few solar power stations already operating commercially (at a profit!) in California's Mojave Desert, collectively producing over 300 megawatts since the late 1980s. Here's what one looks like:

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These use an older technology that require parabolic mirror 'troughs' which are more expensive to create and don't generate as much heat as the power tower approach.

Bright Source estimates that covering 2% of the Mojave with their stations can generate all the power needed by the entire state of California. If they're correct, 20% coverage could generate all of the power needed by the entire country. Remember, this is useless desert land, so there's no environmental impact. There are places all over the southwestern USA like this.

This BusinessWeek article has more information on the subject.