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The New York Times takes a cursory look at the state of interest in solar power, noting that solar power has captured the public imagination, but so far failed to capture much by way of significant technology advancements. The story itself, however, seems a bit lacking in imagination, at various points concluding that "there is limited encouragement to take up the challenge" and "[solar power] is not an arena where private energy companies are likely to make the breakthrough". Vinod Khosla - and Silicon Valley in general - are mentioned by name, but there's no mention of the amount of money pouring into solar power R&D from the venture capital community. Over the past couple years it's amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars into dozens of companies. Not to mention the successful IPO/spinoff of SunPower, SunPower's acquisition of PowerLight, movement by talented entrepreneurs from "dot-com" tech into solar businesses such as SolarCity and Akeena Solar. All of this provides plenty of evidence that private companies - provided they're given a level playing field through government policy - can and will lead the charge. On that note, the article makes a good point: nearly three times as much federal money is spent on coal R&D than on solar. So it goes.
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