Generally when you think of solar power, the sun beating down on a dry, dusty desert might come to mind. But in Brazil, a new project will see solar panels installed on a much wetter surface: the surface of a reservoir.

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating system is the largest solar plant of its kind in the world. By "its kind," we mean a solar power tower system, which uses an array of mirrors to focus sunlight on single towers. So those thin concentric circles you see in this photo are actually rows upon rows of sun-tracking mirrors surrounding three towers. (The green patch on the right of the towers is a golf course.)

Solar power has proven itself better for static charging than it has for on-vehicle use, even if Australia's Solar Challenge race has shown solar cars to be possible under certain, very specific conditions.

In this segment of Fox & Friends, called "Pulling the Plug: The Dim Future of Solar Power," co-host Gretchen Carlson asked asked Fox Business reporter Shibani Joshi why Germany has been able to generate so much more solar power than the U.S. "What was Germany doing correctly?," Carlson asked. "Are they just a smaller country, have they make it more feasible - " "They're a smaller country," Joshi answered, "and they've got a lot of sun. Right? They've got a lot more sun than we do."

Many green buildings involve technologies like solar power, recycling of water or natural ventilation. But there's another path of relatively unexplored green potential - literally greening buildings by planting trees on them. The Bosco Verticale, under construction in Milan, Italy, is bridging the gap between this concept and reality.

If you want to be a part of discovering the future of solar power, you can be. You don't need any special knowledge or equipment, just let Alán Aspuru-Guzik borrow your computer when you're not using it.