I think the article is simply typical sloppy journalism. I can accept the possibility the kid has a useful invention.
Journalists (liberals) really, really, really, want alternative fuels to work. I think that it tends to cloud their (limited) reasoning.
I'd love for us to be able to harness the sun's energy...there's just not enough of energy delivered to a small enough space, to be practically usable on a large scale basis. About the best idea that I've heard use solar collectors to generate heat to run a small-scale power plant. Problem is that it couldn't run 24/7, and that the solar collectors took up 10s or 100s of acres of space.
If I had to place any bets on any alternative fuels, I'd put my money on wave-related power. It's constant, delivers far more energy per ft^2, and the only challenges to surmount are weather-related.