Washington, DC [New York Times] It was not so many years ago that solar
power was a niche concept for electricity generation, an idea embraced
mostly by the green-minded who were eager to do their part for energy
conservation. It is still a niche concept, providing less than 1 percent
of the electricity on the grid. ... But the list of leading solar
supporters now includes President Bush, a former oil man living in a
partly solar-powered White House who is suddenly endorsing solar energy as
an affordable source of power in the future. Mr. Bush's overall budget for
so-called renewable energy in the 2007 fiscal year is $1.17 billion, about
the same as the current level of spending. And solar energy is only a tiny
part of that, at $148.3 million. Still, spending for research on solar
energy, both by government scientists and by outside scientists and
academics, would be 78.5 percent higher than it was in the 2006 budget.
...
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