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Solar’s Long History and Why We’re Just Now Getting ‘Round to It

Alexis Madrigal, inspired by initial readings of a Frank Laird book, recently posted an interesting blog that, at least preliminarily, explored the fact that solar technology — or at least the knowledge of its potential for creating cheap and abundant energy — has been around for nearly a century and yet been largely ignored by, or remained a mystery to, most of mainstream society until the last decade or so. Even now the battle is still arguably an uphill one.

This blog will not be a summation of Madrigal’s nor a treatise on Laird’s book (although information in the Introduction alone has proven most useful). Instead it is merely, and in turn, inspired by that same fascinating question: Where has Solar Power been all these years?

Solar Furnace In Solar Energy, Technology Policy, and Institutional Values, which focuses on those three issues from post-World War II on, Laird notes that the Truman administration actually put forth very aggressive proposals for the development of solar power as an energy resource. And yet none of these proposals ever became energy policy.

The easy and obvious answer is that a renewed abundance of oil supply, from Eisenhower to Nixon and in the Reagan-Bush-Clinton years that followed the 1970s oil crisis, laid solar power in its temporary grave. Yet even during the administrations of the 50’s and 60’s — while oil, natural gas, and coal were abundant and falling in price — the need for consideration of future energy supplies was deemed important in governmental report after report. Again, none influenced policy making. Not until the Carter administration did solar get a real executive boost. At that time a solar hot water system was even installed at the White House. It was, as it turned out, a symbolic gesture at best. Ronald Reagan, only seven short years later, cancelled or let existing incentives expire and, now famously, pulled the solar collectors off the White House roof.

In the years following, even as environmental issues steadily grew in the public mind, little but talk surrounded solar at the executive level despite an inevitable peak in oil production occurring by the end of the century had been predicted many times, beginning more than 50 years prior. Even now, in 2008 amidst an undeniable decline in fossil fuel supply, federal solar tax credits passed only at the eleventh hour and as part of a monstrously expensive bailout bill that may render actual funding for the credits nonexistent.

The question remains as to why, when all arrows point toward creating a renewable future now, is embracing renewable energy still a question at all.

I posit that there are four main reasons for the continued resistance to embracing solar and other renewable resources at the policy level:

Solar energy advocates simply do not have as big a voice in Washington as oil, coal, and gas industry advocates do.
Deregulation has left energy, and distribution of that energy, in the hands of corporate enterprise, and corporations inherently enjoy free markets, not free energy.
The American people have been largely unaware of the possibility of any crisis until it was upon us. Only now is the mainstream waking up to renewable, domestic energy supplies. And still much of the talk is about clean coal, nuclear power, natural gas, off-shore drilling, etc.
The military industrial complex is inextricably tied with the energy industry and has been since World War II. Military might has long been a driving force behind our economy and reluctant to give up its power.

I believe we will see solar power and renewable energy become a major force in our lives and our economy. There is, quite frankly, no other choice. However, the solar industry at the moment is widespread, full of competition, a true market. Innovation is nearly constant, prices are falling, it is a very promising time.

Yet I think it’s fair to say that our current energy economy (oil, gas, and coal) is controlled by a small handful of companies and, ipso facto, by a small handful of people. We will — indeed we already are — see solar power take off. But without a reintroduction of regulation into energy policy and a resurgence of consumer advocacy, we won’t see it until the market has been centralized, not by our government but by our corporations (with the usual help from our government).

Indeed, we are already seeing a resistance at the executive level to customer-distribution in favor of concentrated solar power (CSP), which may not be the logical choice for a number of reasons (environment, transmission, etc.) but will keep control over production and pricing in the hands of the few. To be fair (and hopeful), there is as yet no telling what a new Obama administration will do regarding energy. He has promised an all encompassing approach, with a heavy focus on solar, wind, and other renewables, but has also reigned in any reluctance he once held toward offshore drilling, nuclear, clean coal, and other industry supported solutions; becoming ever more in line with current Bush administration viewpoints. You see, as Obama gets ever closer to the Oval Office, he also gets closer to the cacophony of “inside voices” that surround it and have influenced it over solar energy’s long yet unfortunately short history.

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