According to this link Europe uses 4,000 terawatts of energy but in the normally unusable deserts of North Africa and the Middle East 630,000 terawatts fall unused. If solar thermal plants covered the desert about the size of Austria it could power the whole entire world. The technology is cheap and includes an ability to store the energy for nighttime needs. If all this is possible why are Earth are we not employing this clean, cheap, abundent source of energy?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,550544,00.html
