It's solar power's time to shine

Not a very interesting article. It’s talking about Solar Thermal Energy as an alternative energy source, which IS interesting, but what’s changed? I learned about STE when I was in fifth or sixth grade (around 1990). STE was touted as the only real way to harvest solar energy. Here we are twenty years later and it’s still a great idea, but only an idea. What needs to happen to truly make these types of changeovers happen?

Global Warming, Carbon Footprints and everything else aside, isn’t an energy source like this more attractive? No dependence on external sources–just start up and maintenance costs. I’d think this would be ideal if I were an energy company.