Super solar collectors?

I would expect more from an engineering site...

I have talked to quite a few people about this already for a few years now. The inherent problems with this stems from the concentration of heat (energy). It does more than let the solar cell output (not make) electricity. It also heats the poor cell up.
Now take the sun, it has a lot of energy coming off of it. If you concentrate it by 4 you have an oven able to broil food. Multiply it by 1000? Silicon might sublimate, not to mention the steel supports holding the cell. Not very condusive to harnessing it into electricity.
If you could keep it in a solid electrically outputting cell, it's lifespan which is usually 20-30 years drops to around 10 days. If it took 6 hours to replace it would drop it's efficiency by 2.5%.
That's not the worst drain on efficiency though. Hot metal is a much worse conducter than cold metal. The near liquid state would make any electrical current a mere trickle.

http://www.engineering.com/Videos/VideoPlayer/tabid/4627/VideoId/2140/A-Solar-Cell-1000-Times-More-Powerful.aspx

Solar Days Getting Shorter

As you may know the sun is starting to be out less. It's probably not very noticable yet but it soon will be. As we get into July and August it will be painfully apparent that there is less light to do stuff by that needs to get done.
Then starting in August the orbit of the planet will do something that none of us really like. High noon, the actuall middle of the day, will quickly become earlier and earlier effectively chopping out twenty-five minutes from the available daylight in the evening and putting it up front on top of having a shorter total span of daylight.
In effect this causes the sun to rise about the same time every morning for a couple months while the sun sets an hour earlier by the end of that same span. At least where I live in north central Texas and similar latitudes.
The overall effect to me is that I'll have a booger of a time getting everything watered in the evening while there is still light.