Someone made a thread about this a few months ago.

Not only do I think it will work (one day, if not in the near future,) but I think it's going to be one of the major turning points in the advancement of human technology. If you have virtually unlimited energy, you no longer really have to worry about a lot of things. A lot of "theoretical processes" that are considered convoluted and inefficient now will become trivial.

The other major turning point will be when we begin seriously harvesting the asteroids. I think this will come after controlled fusion, though. If we figure out how to control fusion, and we gain the ability to easily harvest asteroids, we've essentially got unlimited energy and resources. Asteroids are loaded with all sorts of useful materials and precious metals, compared to the Earth's crust. The most notable metal in my opinion would be iridium, which is what even the best alloys strive to be like. It's incredibly hard, strong, corrosion resistant, and it has better high-temperature mechanical properties than any other metal.