I've been tracking solar too, and there has been a considerable upswing in wide scale consumer applications (as opposed to industrial or high-end). I can't go an hour listening to the radio without hearing five ads on putting solar on my house.

But solar is only a small part of the solution. It excels in warm climates where there's a lot of sun. Places like Arizona, where maximum solar flux coincides with maximum AC energy needs.

But for our planet to raise its living standards across the board, we'll need bigger solutions. Cheap, abundant energy is a big part of making wealthy nations out of poor ones.

Nuclear could get a lot of the job done, and I'm keeping an eye on non-conventional concepts involving smaller, safer, decentralized systems. I'd love to see fusion come into play, but I'm not holding my breath.

Every form of energy generation can play a part. If you live where tidal generators work, use them. Every watt generated by alternatives is a watt we don't need to burn hydrocarbons for, and even if there were no such thing as AGW, too much of our industrial base uses hydrocarbons as its prime material to waste it by simply burning it.

Maybe there's a role for space solar power, but launch costs have to go down more than they have.