On Wednesday, January 29, 2003, at 03:18 PM, Bill Frantz wrote:

At 2:24 PM -0800 1/29/03, Eugen Leitl wrote:

...

Feds are sure inefficient, but the random dispersal of funds does tend to hit the far shots now and then. The private sector tends to ruthlessly optimize on the short run (because the long shot doesn't pay if you go broke before you can reap the possible benefits).

Back a few years ago, probably back during the great gas crisis (i.e. OPEC) years, there were a lot of small companies working on solar power. As far as I know, they were all bought up by oil companies. Of course, only a paranoid would think that they were bought to suppress a competing technology.

Some of the leading PV panels are those from BP (British Petroleoum). These can be ordered, along with those from Kyocera, Astropower, Siemens, and others, from many sites. Use Google to find them. My brother worked for one of these companies at their Simi Valley/Thousand Oaks site about 20 years ago. The issues are complex, but have zero to do with leftie fantasies about oil companies suppressing technologies. There is no way to control fundamental breakthroughs, whether PV conversion or "caburetors that violate the laws of physics!." Any of the above non-oil companies (and one can add Texas Instruments and others to the list) which develops a more efficient, cheaper to manufacture PV system will find success. --Tim May