For solar power: Sunny days ahead? The future of sun-derived electric power is clouded by budgetary constraints, institutional and public inertia, and poor incentives

Conventional fuel costs are escalating, supplies are depleted, and the environmental hazards of both the coal and nuclear alternatives are being stressed by an increasingly vocal opposition. In a torrid climate of national debate — one that tends to generate more heat than light — solar power seems to have become the darling of a substantial portion of the R&D community. And with some justification: the sun, for one thing, is virtually inexhaustible. Nevertheless, progress toward large-scale implementation of solar energy for electric power generation has so far been hampered by an array of economic, technical, and institutional barriers.