Solar energy is suggested as a replacement for fossil energy sources.
Two collection methods currently are in use.
1. solar panels
2. Parabolic mirrors

Solar panels have about 40% efficiency. They are expensive, especially when retrofitted. Cost is borne by the purchaser, usually part through taxes.
For many areas, the energy generated must be supplemented by other means.
Their manufacture creates large volumes of toxic sludge and contaminatesd water, bearing carcinogenic cadmium. Seventeen companies in California created 46.5 million tons of sludge and contaminated water in 2007-2010, which had to be transported to disposal sites.

Two sites in California, supported in part by tax money, were selected for large scale generation.
The plant in initial service, engineered and managed by the Spanish company Abengoa, is in the Mohave desert, using parabolic mirrors to heat liquid steam to drive turbines to generate electricity. It covers 1765 acres, generates 600,000 MWh/year and cost US$ 1600 million to build.
The other project, Blythe, Solar Millennium, originally based on parabolic mirror technology, went broke, but is being revived by a German company who will use solar panels.

Cost relative to coal and other energy sources, waste products involved in manufacture, and cost of long transmission infrastructure are drawbacks to current methods of converting solar energy.