A "bright" solution to our oil problems?

I don't read too many things and think, holy cow - this is frickin cool!  I mean...who thinks up this stuff?  So in my perusing of the masses of information on emerging technologies this week, I tripped across this story - http://www.marketwatch.com/story/chevron-technology-ventures-launches-worlds-largest-solar-enhanced-oil-recovery-project-2011-10-03.  I don't quite count myself an environmentalist, but I am surely not oblivious to these issues.  Having spent some time over in the desert...yes, that big sandbox in hell...I happen to have some pretty strong emotions when it comes to our country's reliance on foreign oil.  So, any intiative that offers some potential solution is at least worth my time reading and considering.  I also happen to be a huge ocean lover so the whole offshore drilling makes me uneasy, especially after the disaster in the Gulf.  Knowing nothing about oil or how to get it, all I can do is think about how ridiculous it is to me that our gas prices go up and down like a yo yo based on a bunch of factors I don't understand...but seem to be on whether people overseas are going to give us oil or not.  How frustrating is that when you are paying through the nose to drive down the street?  Both my husband and I even traded in our cars for hybrids just so we would at least "feel" like we were doing something to change things...foolish as that is - we know we aren't but dammit, it made us feel better at the time (and we do buy much less gas which helps too). 
So enough jammering on from me...onto this great article...who would have ever thought that you could throw a bunch of mirrors in a field, point them at the sun, and in return, increase oil production??  I mean really...how do these people come up with these crazy ideas - brilliant ideas - and dammit, why could I not have thought of that :o).  I am all about any emerging technology that is creatively looking to solve this problem and my hats off to the oil companies who, though they are raking in the dough off our $4/gallon gas prices, at least they are using some small fraction to change the world...wish it was more but we have to start some place!