For proof, look no further than the fat $130 million investment scooped up by eSolar, a company whose basic solar power strategy -- using sunlight-reflecting mirrors to generate steam -- was all but abandoned in the 1980s, and has recently recently caught investors' attention again.

The money, from Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org, and venture capital firms Idealab and Oak Investment Partners, will go towards the construction of eSolar's first functioning solar power plant.