Storm, all energy sources get some form of government subsidies. But I also realize that the argument "well, everyone else is getting money from the government" is a pretty weak argument. An interesting question is this:
If none of the energy sources we used received government assistance, tax breaks or preferential regulatory laws, then would the price of electricity be high enough that solar would be finically feasible with no tax credits? Wish I new the answer...
Moss Road, As for the CFLs, I put a lot of ceiling can lights in my house only to find out that the CFLs have much lower life in them. They are best when used in the upright or sideways position in an open air environment. In a can light, the electronics is taking the brunt of the heat from the bulb and it runs very hot. Often the plastic in the base turns brown from the heat. The capacitors and semiconductors have much shorter lifetimes than if they are kept cooler. Parts that can withstand the heat are much more expensive to use. Googling CFL problems has more on all this.
Fortunately, I also put a number of sconce type lights in my house for hallways and bathrooms and those work very well with the CFLs. I also used dimmers on incandescent bulbs for the bedroom and my office. With incandescents the combination of a slow ramp up when turned on and running at partial brightness means long life and lower energy use.
CFLs tend to not work from an economic point of view if they are on for less than 5 minutes. Like a well pump, they may run forever but only turn on so many times. Incandescence have the same problem, but with a lower price they don't have to turn on as many times to be cost effective. There is a lot of manufacturer variation in quality and how much heat CFLs can take, and some of the problem here has been a rush to market with poor/cheap designs. Another problem is that since the bulbs rectify the AC and make DC for the electronic ballast, they do not draw current like a resistive incandescent bulb. They draw a peak current near the top of the AC wave form, and they draw current out of phase due to the capacitor in the bulb (in other words, bad power factor). So the 13W CFL that replaces the 60W incandescent really requires generation capacity of close to 30 watts from the power plant, adds a lot of harmonic distortion, and has bad power factor. The power bill is good for the owner since there is no charge for harmonic distortion or power factor problems but the reduction of power plant resources and pollution is half of what it might seem. Bottom line, they have a place in the house, cut generation requirements in half, are great for the light you might leave on for an hour or two, but can't replace every incandescent bulb.
Note that LED lights will have the same sorts of problems. If you look at efficiencies (lumens per watt kind of stuff), and the incandescent bulb is a '1', then florescent is a '4' and LED is a '5'. But the LED still has electronics in it, still has the harmonic distortion and power factor problem, and still has the problem of getting rid of heat in a standard fixture where the electronics and bulb are in the same screw in device. The life of the LED is proportional to how cool you keep it, so there will be problems with companies cheaping out on heat sinking the parts as well as problems with the lifetime of the electronics driving the LEDs.
soapbox:
It's sad that the world can't agree on a form factor and connector style/pinout for external electronics to drive fluorescent bulbs and LED lights (different boxes for each type). When you remove the heat from the electronics, the life of the systems makes the economics work. But that means new fixtures and a means to access the electronics. Perhaps even sadder is that if the world can't agree on this sort of thing, how do we solve the really big problems?
/soapbox
If done right, both bulb types are economically viable in terms of high initial cost of the bulb vs. savings from low energy use. The two problems are getting the designs right and getting consumers who will pay now and save later.
Hope this wasn't a TMI post...
Pete
