June 20, 1979: Carter dedicated the 32-panel solar hot water system on the roof of the White House West Wing (see image above). [link to text of speech]
• Here Carter announced “a new solar strategy…. By the end of this century, I want our nation to derive 20 percent of all energy we use from the sun.”
• Carter said: “A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken—or it can be a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever taken by the American people: harnessing the power of the sun.”
• In case you’re unaware, Carter’s solar heating system was dismantled in 1986, even though the system was performing well. Here are a pair of good summaries: [link 1] [link 2].
June 1979: The Department of Energy released a study on the future prevalence of passive solar houses and light commercial buildings. They expected that in the year 2000, 41% of new buildings would be passive solar. That assumed no incentives. With tax credits, the projection rose to 48%. [link to report]
July 15, 1979: In the famous ‘malaise speech’ Carter said: “To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in our Nation's history to develop America's own alternative sources of fuel—from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the Sun.” [link to text of speech]
July 27, 1979: Carter appointed Denis Hayes, “an outspoken advocate for solar energy” and chairman of the Solar Lobby, to be director of SERI. Hayes had recently published Rays of Hope: The Transition to a Post-Petroleum World.
June 30, 1980: Carter signed into law the Energy Security Act, which created the Solar Energy and Energy Conservation Bank, to “provide over $3 billion in direct subsidies to homes and to industries to conserve energy and to use renewable supplies of energy.” [link to text of speech]
January 16, 1981: In his final State of the Union address, Carter summarized these accomplishments: “Solar energy funding has been quadrupled, solar energy tax credits enacted, and a Solar Energy and Energy Conservation Bank has been established.” [link to text of speech]
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Here are some figures showing the growth in federal spending on solar energy during the Carter years (source: Washington Post, June 13, 1980):
• 1975: $40M
• 1978: $500M
• 1980: $1.1B
• 1981: $1.4B
To be sure, President Carter was not solely responsible for this aggressive growth. Indeed, there were several instances where Democrats in Congress pushed Carter to move more aggressively.
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As I wrote in The Solar House: “When President Reagan was elected in 1980, it foreshadowed the end of an era for solar energy. He immediately slashed the budgets for solar energy by two-thirds. At SERI, Hayes was fired and the staff was cut from 950 to 350. In 1985 Congress allowed the solar tax credits to lapse and companies [making solar thermal systems] folded.”
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2017: Carter built a 1.3 MW solar farm on his land in Plains, Georgia. [link]
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Some additional sources:
President Carter's Energy Proposals: A Perspective, Congressional Budget Office (1977). [link to pdf]
Harvey Strum and Fred Strum, “American Solar Energy Policy, 1952-1982,” Environmental Review 7:2 (Summer 1983), 139-44.
Daniel Richa and J. David Roessner, “Tax Credits and US Solar Commercialization Policy,” Energy Policy 18:2 (March 1990), 186-98.
Bill McKibben, “Jimmy Carter, Green-Energy Visionary,” New Yorker (December 29, 2024) link
