Taken from the NASA STEREO Mission.

Here's some background on the NASA STEREO mission: NASA Page.

They [The twin STEREO satellites -ed.] will reveal the 3D structure of coronal mass ejections; violent eruptions of matter from the sun that can disrupt satellites and power grids, and help us understand why they happen.

And intro video for the mission:

For a quick news blurb level of info go here: Solar wind weakest since beginning of space age - Breitbart.com

For an in depth look at the issue go here: Solar System's Protective Shield is Weakening; Solar Wind Velocity at Record Low - Universe Today

The Ulysses space probe has been busy.  The latest reports show the level of solar wind to be at its lowest level since accurate reports began half a century ago.

Ulysses' orbit 2002-2008

There are some far ranging repercussions to this, some potentially good, some potentially bad.  Most not fully understood.

• The solar wind creates the Heliosphere.  If the solar wind is weaker then the Helioshpere will be smaller and weaker which would allow more cosmic rays into the solar system.  All things being equal we want less cosmic rays coming in, but the overall impact is unknown.
• The lessening of the solar wind will cause less drag on satellites and therefore allow them to stay in orbit longer.  Weird but true.  This reduces cost, potentially by a lot.  How much does one more day in orbit save an agency or company with a satellite there?  One more hour?  Multiplied by how many satellites?
• Rich's plan to create a solar wind powered spaceship has reached a snag.
• ?Global warming? - no idea.  My opinion with ZERO data to back it up is that, again everything else being equal, a reduction in solar wind will cause a cooling of some sort on the earth. 

Heliosphere - courtesy wikicommons.

Very odd and strangely beautiful.

http://www.semiconductorfilms.com/root/Brilliant_Noise/BNoise.htm

Brilliant Noise takes us into the data vaults of solar astronomy. After sifting through hundreds of thousands of computer files, made accessible via open access archives, Semiconductor have brought together some of the sun's finest unseen moments. These images have been kept in their most raw form, revealing the energetic particles and solar wind as a rain of white noise.

cool.

Here is a new kind of solar cell, using nano scale antennas, that can convert infra read (heat) radiation into electricity.

http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200808221

Using an antenna tuned to the resonant frequency of IR light is very efficient, theoretically you should be able to get 90% efficiency or more.  Imagine:

1. Putting IR collectors on the interior walls in your house to collect IR radiation, cool the room and generate electricity at the same time.
2. Rooftop IR collectors to collect heat energy from the air, even at night.
3. Lining the engine compartment of your hybrid car with IR collectors to collect waste heat to charge the batteries while the engine is running and even after you turn the engine off.

The waste energy of most machines (and chemical reactions) always comes out as heat.  If you can convert the heat back into useful energy (electricity) you should be able to achieve near 100% efficiency from any kind of machine. 

In fact, if the working part of the machine is kept in a vacuum bottle, like a thermos, the ONLY way it can radiate energy is as IR radiation.  In this way you could capture 100% of the waste energy from any machine.

For example, there is a new catalyst which can be used to extract hydrogen from ethanol.  Just add the catalyst plus heat.  The waste from the reaction comes out as heat, so if you put the whole reactor inside a vacuum chamber (really just a double walled vessel with a vacuum between the walls), now line the inside of the OUTER wall with the IR collector, and 100% of the waste heat is collected as electricity.

Same thing is true of a hydrogen fuel cell.  Hydrogen fuel cells convert hydrogen plus oxygen to electricity, but there is some waste and the waste comes out again as heat.  Again, put the whole thing in a double walled vessel, with a vacuum between the walls, all the waste comes out as heat, which becomes IR radiation, which is collected again using IR collectors (with 90%+ efficiency) and now you have a hydrogen fuel cell with 90%+ efficiency. 

See a trend here?  Any kind of technology can become 90%+ efficiency by collecting waste heat as IR using IR collectors.

Cool stuff.

Twelve and a half square miles of solar panels --> Produces 1/3 the power of one coal burning power plant.

Two Large Solar Plants Planned in California

That means to get the same output from a solar power facility as you would from a coal plant, that inhabits a few acres, you would need a facility in the neighborhood of 35 square miles.  That's a lot of space to have set aside for generating power.

What is the environmental impact comparison between the two?

The quote at the very end of the article is telling:

Neither approaches the economy of fossil-fuel burning plants, said Ms. Zerwer, the spokeswoman for Pacific Gas & Electric. But they will be competitive with wind power and with power from solar thermal plants, which are equipped with mirrors that use the sun’s heat to boil water into steam. And prices will fall, she predicted.

Then why build them?