"Solar Power Wins Enthusiasts but Not Money" "The trade association for the nuclear power industry recently asked 1,000 Americans what energy source they thought would be used most for generating electricity in 15 years. The top choice? Not nuclear plants, or coal or natural gas. The winner was the sun, cited by 27 percent of those polled. ... But for all the enthusiasm about harvesting sunlight, some of the most ardent experts and investors say that moving this energy source from niche to mainstream -- last year it provided less than 0.01 percent of the countryAEs electricity supply -- is unlikely without significant technological breakthroughs. And given the current scale of research in private and government laboratories, that is not expected to happen anytime soon." One reason is that the government, while spending big bucks to subsidize research on ways to use fossil fuels and nuclear energy, is spending comparatively little on solar research. Andrew C. Revkin and Matthew L. Wald report in the New York Times 7/16/07.
Read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/16/business/16solar.html