State is thinking big on energy

By Bruce A. Percelay
February 24, 2008

THINKING BIG is not something new to Massachusetts. It was a president from here who declared his goal in 1961 to put someone on the moon, and a decade later the country did. In the 1970s, the government wanted a communications network that would survive a nuclear attack, and in Cambridge the Internet was born. When the demand for computers spread to private business, Digital Equipment invented the minicomputer here in 1964. And, today, the state is at the leading edge of the biotech revolution. The list of big ideas that have been realized here is long and dramatic.
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Governor Deval Patrick, who is often accused of being "big idea" happy, has touched the surface of an idea that could once again put us at the forefront of another technology revolution. The governor recently advanced a program that will provide incentives for the development and use of solar panels in this state and does so in a way that is economically feasible.

The idea is so good that it encouraged a local company, Evergreen Solar, to stay and manufacture its product in this state rather than take it to Germany, which was its original intention. It's funny how far a little government support can go to stimulate economic activity.

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