1. Nuclear is unpopular because of the Japanese Earthquake incident. Fair or not theres a lot of baggage that comes with nuclear energy these days.
2. Second, the regulation surronding nuclear is a nightmare. A plant hasn't been built in the US since something like the early 80's because of this reason.
3. The financing approach makes a lot of sense for Google. They can make a lot of money without building any sort of infrastructure.
Solar is more hype than anything, and it's good press. Is anyone making money from solar?
There's a video of Bill Gates making a mathematical case why solar will not solve our problems. We need another nuclear plant, the name escape but I think it uses all the nuclear waste.
I do wonder how RF power transmission is progressing, and what issues will come with it, as I imagine that's the most feasible way to transport energy from space to earth, although wikipedia also mentions laser transmission - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_energy_transfer
I'm surprised Google is able to make residential PV contracts make sense: my guess is that the consumers here are either paying more than the prevailing market rates, or they are locked into a very long contract (20+ years?), or both.
By contrast, we target the commercial market, have shorter contracts (10 years), and guarantee a discount relative to the utility co's.