General Motors liked the idea of using the sun to power its buildings. But until recently, one immutable economic fact held GM back: The upfront costs were simply too high to justify the ultimate payoff.

GM is not alone. Even solar energy's biggest fans concede that the high investment costs have kept companies from pursuing what is arguably the cleanest, most renewable and least politically sensitive energy source around.

But now, GM and a small but growing number of other companies and municipalities are getting solar energy from systems installed by others. Even though the installations are right on their own roofs, they buy the electricity much as they would from a utility's grid. And because the companies that paid for the systems will get a steady income, the can provide power from the sun at competitive electricity rates.

Full NY Times artilce by Claudia H. Deutsch here: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/21/business/21solar.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin

Joe Nocera's regular Saturday NYTimes column this week is on Google's partnership with EISolutions, a Bill Gross Idealab company in a new technique to produce solar power at Google's headquarters.

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/28/business/28nocera.html"