George Szego, 88, solar energy leader

George Charles Szego, a chemical engineer who founded a pioneering solar technology company and persuaded former president Jimmy Carter to install solar collectors on the roof of the White House, died April 23 of cardiac arrest at Kent General Hospital in Dover, Del. He was 88.

In 1970, he founded InterTechnology/Solar Corp., hoping to capitalize on America's budding curiosity about solar energy and other alternatives to fossil fuel.

The company's headquarters was a converted Safeway store in Warrenton, Va., and by the late 1970s, ITC/Solar was competing with General Electric, Honeywell, and other industry leaders for government research contracts.

"Technicians from giant energy companies often make the trip to Warrenton to sit at his feet," Forbes Magazine said in 1978.

His company manufactured plates used in solar panels and solar-powered hot water heaters. Mr. Szego also saw promise in what would come to be called biofuel, and he traveled around the world promoting the use of marginal land to grow a special breed of plant that could be used to power boilers.

In 1979, ITC/Solar received a $28,000 contract to install 32 solar thermal collectors on the roof of the West Wing of the White House, and the president inaugurated the solar hot water system on June 20 of that year. Mr. Szego told Energy Design Update years later that the equipment performed well. "The collectors were cranking out hot water a mile a minute," he said.

The collectors were removed in 1986 to repair a roof leak and were never reinstalled.