The distant future is quite bright, literally. About 90 petawatts of solar energy reaches the surface of the Earth and our current total global energy consumption from all sources is a mere 15 Terawatts, a miniscule fraction of what's available from the Sun. The record efficiency for photovoltaics is now 42.8% with 65% on the horizon and photovoltaics are also coming down in price, compare this to photosynthesis which is the source of all bio and fossil fuels where most plants barely eek out 1% efficiency and the theoretical maximum efficiency of photosynthesis is just 6.6%. Of course, leaves literally grows on trees. The problem will be the cost of changing over to a more sane and sustainable way of using solar energy then our limited fossil reserves. Fossil fuels are literally as inexpensive as opening a tap, nature has done all the hard work over millions of years. Unfortunately, there will be great economic upheaval before we can reach the clean solar future that is already technically feasible, we'll probably will have to run out of cheap fossil reserves with al the economic problems of doing so before people will invest seriously in a solar future. It would take exceptional leadership to soften the transition by encouraging investment now. The recent oil price collapse from $150 a barrel to $50 a barrel didn't help matters as the current generation of business investors now know they can easily loose their shirts if they are betting on high oil prices, the same thing happened in 1986 when oil prices collapsed to $12 a barrel and it took from then till now for a generation of managers oblivious to oil price collapses before major investments occurred and now we'll probably have to wait another 30 years. Our children's children may be fine but some of us are going to go broke in between.