The primary problem when it comes to solar power usage is the installation and initial set up costs of the solar panels. This combined with the fact that we dont have an extremely efficient way of converting solar energy into usable energy means its a long time before the initial costs are recovered.
A team of MIT students succesfully managed to create an inexpensive solar dish. The system is a 12 ft. wide mirrored dish made of thin, inexpensive aluminum tubing and strips of mirror. It concentrates sun rays by a factor of 1,000, enough heat to melt a steel bar. Because water in the tubing turns to steam, the team is hoping that could revolutionize energy production as we know it. Lets just hope they find some deep pocketed backers for this technology since we certainly need some alternate sources of energy - and fast.