Solar Technology

Atlantic Richfield acknowledged Friday that it is looking for a buyer for Arco Solar Inc., the subsidiary that Arco built into the world's leading producer of photovoltaic cells after buying a small solar firm amid much hoopla in 1977. Describing the growth of the solar market as unacceptably slow because energy prices haven't climbed nearly as high as some had projected in the 1970s, Arco said it is discussing the sale of all or part of Arco Solar with "a number of companies."

Robert A. Felburg is not your ordinary real estate developer. He'll tell you that. His friends will tell you that. His enemies will tell you that. At 64, Felburg has earned a reputation as one of the most eccentric businessmen in Ventura County. After all, how many other developers would send reporters a letter spelling out their substantial financial troubles? Or write articles advocating a quarantine of victims of AIDS?