Early Exposure to Solar Energy

When I was a young college student I had to walk right by this solar furnace dozens of times a week to get from my classes in the Industrial Engineering building to lectures in the Physics building.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GTRI_Solar_Furnace_1979.jpg

I think they replaced it with a building in the '90s. 

I wonder if these mirrors on the hill somehow imbued me with an abnormal appreciation for the power of reflected sunlight? It sure seems like a lot of people dismiss it.

Also I must point out that London man's melty jaguar was black. Here's a color experiment I did a few years ago that is obliquely relevant.