Industry Focus
When Good Green Energy Ideas Go Bad
Six innovations that seemed brilliant but didn’t catch on.
Mirrors stand at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in the Mojave Desert near Primm, Nevada.
Photographer: Jacob Kepler/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
It must have seemed like a good idea at the time.
The annals of green energy are filled with people who devised brilliant solutions to vexing problems, delivering more power for less money, making things cleaner, easier, and better. Many became rich and famous in the process.