Here's a good article that gives hope that large scale solar power is quickly taking root due to the high cost of fossil fuels and the rapidly decreasing costs of generating solar power. Excerpts:

It's pure economics, not a green dream anymore.
...
The industry likes to point out that between 1996 and 2005, U.S. utilities built 250 gigawatts of natural-gas-fired plants, now producing a quarter of the nation's total. There's now nothing standing in the way of building another 250 gigawatts of power using pollution-free solar thermal.

And we didn't have to wait for Cheney to leave office or a Congress with backbone to mandate anything. This is faster and cheaper than new fossil fuel or newkular plants.

Imagine how much wider the difference in costs will be by the time the older, dirtier technology plants would get on line, many years in the future.