Sorry, but I have to disagree in so many ways.
First of this clean energy has many downsides, as it is unstable, this means you can not rely 100% on it because it depends on the weather, it depends on where you are situated in the world - because of the angle you receive the sunlight in the world and additionally we are not able to "absorb" enough of it so we can save it. If we were able to reduce the cost of the batteries and store more of the energy we would face another issue - changing of the environment, if this is good or not, I can't tell, but absorbing the energy that heates a house all day long from the sun, might reflect on the night. Snow will not melt that easy in bigger cities. Crops and microorganisms will change on crops... I think you get my idea. As you are talking globally, I'm also presenting this globally, all this reflects that we utilize the sun energy as much as possible.
Another point, you started with, is that burning stuff is so old school. Well actually the energy we receive from the sun is generated from fusion and decay. The second is pretty similar to burning stuff and getting energy out. So following this the sun energy you get is exactly the same energy you would get by burning stuff.
Don't get me wrong, I support the idea, but it's not a realistic solution to our energy needs! For me having a fusion reactor should be the ultimate goal of humanity to solve each and every energy need and to develop the civilization even further away from our home planet!