"The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race."

I got an email from a co-worker from some other office across the nation with an interesting quote attached to the end of it.

"I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that." - Thomas Edison

So, knowing me, I immediately search out the truth of the statement and find its source. What I found to be funny is that this is taken from a book in which it's Henry Ford quoting Edison in a conversation with Harvey Firestone. The more complete quote by Edison talks about utilizing sun, wind, and tide as a source of energy. So, Thomas Edison (who died in 1931) already knew how important it was to remove our ties to fossil fuels although the majority of his fame comes about by means of coal fired power plants. Henry Ford (who died in 1947) also knew how important it was regardless of the fact that he is directly tied to oil.

Now, it's 2009 (practically 2010) and we struggle to convince clients that placing a PV panel on a roof is a sound design decision. Hmmm. What am I missing, here?