Richmond Times Dispatch Editorial, May 5, 2008

While the nation bickers over high gasoline prices, the latest gaffe by a candidate, and other ephemera, scientific progress marches forward, largely unheralded. The results will last long after today's headlines have become ancient history. One of the most promising developments: New ways to store solar energy.

Among the various renewable resources, only solar energy could provide a realistic large-scale alternative to contemporary power sources: As much energy hits the Earth every hour as humanity consumes in a year. But capturing and storing that energy has presented a huge technological problem.

Electricity cannot be easily and efficiently stored, which makes cloudy days problematic. But solar energy can be transformed into thermal energy. Two techniques to do so involve mirror farms that reflect and concentrate sunlight on either a tower containing molten salt, or pipes containing fluid. The heated salt or fluid can then be used in steam generators.

The technique has its downside like everything else (it requires large amounts of acreage and presents other environmental challenges, for instance). But 10 such solar plants could supply as much juice as three nuclear reactors.

Does the concept, admittedly a trifle offbeat, hold genuine promise? There's room for doubt. But one small start-up company in the field enjoys the backing of a little-known tech upstart that goes by the name of Google.