Shedding Light on Solar

I feel strongly that one way for our civilization to survive in the face of the major climate changes we have ourselves created is to create alternate sources of energy production that do not produce greenhouse gases. There are a few options such as wind, geothermal, ocean waves and solar. I really don't like the look and sound of wind farms with their giant turbines, geothermal has its own problems, and harnessing the energy of the ocean and its tides is feasible but not yet practical. Generation of electric energy directly from sunlight using solar panels seems to me to be by far the best method, both in terms of ecological considerations and general acceptance by the populace. I realize that as yet the energy conversion is fairly low, around 22%, and that solar concentration methods (ie heating a liquid) can reach efficiencies as high as 40%. But I feel confident that the direct conversion efficiency of panels will dramatically increase as the best minds of our civilization work on this and that the price of these panels will dramatically decrease due to mass production. Also, solar concentration involves massive power plants similar to our current coal- and gas-driven power plants with all the problems that entails, whereas a solar panel on every house will provide a completely decentralized production method which avoids the trap of having giant utility companies destroying the ecology and determining our fate.
    To do my little part, I have finally decided to get solar panels installed on the roof of our  house. The electricity generated will be sent into the grid and the electric company will deduct this from our bill.  And therein lies the rub! Any electricity generated by my solar panels over and above what we use in the house is gladly taken by the electric company with no recompensation or even a thank you. This, I feel is one of the major non-technological stumbling blocks to universal decentralized solar power. Beyond the normal and customary bureaucratic madness, I can only surmise that the electric company wants to maintain a monopoly on the generation of electric power and feels threatened by this new zeitgeist. It is a no-brainer that paying residents for residential energy production will  greatly stimulate its adaption and utilization. Of course, there remains the problem of energy transmission and temporal variability of production when it depends on the sun shining through the clouds. I have read that so-called "smart grids" could be able to solve these problems, but that is another story.
    The astute reader of my blog will notice that I have not mentioned nuclear energy. True, nuclear energy does not produce greenhouse gases, but it produces something even worse, the high level radioactive waste that cannot be safely stored anywhere for the requisite tens and even hundreds of thousands of years into the future. Remember, human civilization only began several thousand years ago when hunter-gatherers formed cities and began growing their food and domesticating animals, and the industrial age only began in the 19th century!  No, I did not mention nuclear energy since I feel it is a problem and not a solution.