In a 1979 White House speech in which he believed he was committing the United States to a wide-scale, permanent transition to solar energy, President Jimmy Carter noted that the switch to solar could become “one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people.” Carter expressed the hope that “America will move toward the solar age with…excitement, high spirits, and with confidence.”

Almost fifty years later, it is worth asking why this renewable energy “adventure” has achieved such patchy …