A solar light at the tunnel's end

Times Union Editorial

The award of $57.5 million to the University at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering to create a solar manufacturing consortium is not just the kind of news we like to hear about a local educational institution. It's the kind of investment we're glad to see this nation make.

It's a feather for UAlbany, of course, and a bonus for the region, that may have just gotten an early front-row seat on the future of solar energy. If it lives up to its promise, the U.S. Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium could lead a revolution in solar technologies that generate electricity.

This is the kind of news that gives us hope that the federal government has learned the mistakes it made after the oil crises of the 1970s and that it won't again let the opportunity to chart a sounder energy course slip by. That means more earnestly supporting the search for practical, sustainable energy. It means treating conservation, from home energy efficiency to fuel efficiency standards to sensible speed limits, as a matter of national interest. It means policies that aren't driven by the price of corn in Kansas and the campaign contributions of Big Agriculture.

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Comments

[Free Energy Power4u]

Great to hear about the $57.5 million awarded to the University