Carter's Solar Energy Legacy

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Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, was the first American President to promote solar energy and solar houses, and the only President (so far) to do so with a measure of vigor. As his legacy is written, here is a timeline of significant events that constitute Carter’s Solar Energy Legacy.

October 1976: President-elect Carter invited several leading environmental thinkers to a retreat in Georgia. These included Eugene Odum, Jim Benson, Denis Hayes, and Amory Lovins. They created “The Wolfcreek Statement: Toward a Sustainable Energy Society,” which helped shape Carter’s energy plan. [link to pdf]

February 2, 1977: Just two weeks into his Presidency, Carter famously wore a sweater and asked Americans to conserve energy by turning down the thermostat (see image below). He promised his administration would emphasize research on solar energy and other renewable energy sources. [link to text of speech] [link to video]

April 18, 1977: In his Address to the Nation on Energy, President Carter declared the energy problem to be the “moral equivalent of war" and he set a goal “to use solar energy in more than 2 1/2 million houses” by 1985. [link to text of speech] Then he sent his National Energy Act to Congress. The legislation was eventually passed after being split in five parts, including the National Energy Conservation Policy Act, which included a program to demonstrate solar energy on federal buildings. Carter signed this bill in 1978 (see below).

August 4, 1977: Carter created the Department of Energy and nominated Dr. James Schlesinger to be its first Secretary. [link to text of speech] Previous entities—Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) and Federal Energy Administration—were absorbed in the new DoE.

March 27, 1978: Carter designated Wednesday, May 3, 1978, as Sun Day. [link to Proclamation]

May 3, 1978: Carter celebrated Sun Day at a site in Golden, Colorado, the future site of the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI). [link to text of speech] [link to Carter’s original speaking notes] SERI had been created in 1974 under President Ford. [link to pdf] It is now the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), sponsor of the Solar Decathlon.
• Carter’s speech included the notable line: “Nobody can embargo sunlight; no cartel controls the sun,” showing that the interest in solar energy in the 1970s was in-part reactionary to political issues and that the OPEC oil embargo was a motivating force.
• He noted the importance of solar engineer George Löf, whose accomplishments are discussed in detail in my book The Solar House. A central theme of the book is that solar heating applications were ‘mature’ by the 1970s due to efforts by people like Löf starting in the 1930s and 40s.
• He also said: “I intend to put in a demonstration solar hot-water system at the White House.”
• According to Mother Jones magazine: “Politically speaking, Sun Day—May 3, 1978—was the peak of support for solar energy in the United States.” [link]

November 4, 1978: Carter signed a law providing $105 million for photovoltaics research. [link to text of speech]

November 9, 1978: Carter signed the five bills constituting his National Energy Act. [link to text of speech]
• This included substantial tax credits for residential solar installations (30% of the first $2,000 and 20% of the next $8,000).
• It also included $100 million for solar retrofits and demonstrations in federal buildings.
• Carter said: “The promise of solar energy, use of biomass and others has been too long neglected as a major source of supply.”
• As I wrote in The Solar House: “Over 1.1 million people used the credits between 1978 and 1984—loosely speaking, more than a million American homes became solar houses.”

January 1979: The Solar Lobby, led by Denis Hayes, published “Blueprint for a Solar America,” which pushed for 25% renewable energy by the year 2000.

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.