Art is right.
As I pointed out elsewhere, the near-term key to solar power is making the same breakthrough in thinking that is leading to the hybrid auto revolution. Stop trying to make the advanced tech (in the case of cars, the batteries) do all the work, and just use them where they are most effective.
Solar panels that supplement, not replace, conventional power sources will do two things: ease the power crunch, and by making solar power mass marketable, eventually bring solar power technology to the maturity needed for solar-only uses. Hybrid cars will do the same for batteries.