Energy policies that promote new technologies and energy sources are policies for the future. They influence the shape of emergent technological systems, and also condition our social, political and economic lives. Solar Energy, Technology Policy, and Institutional Values demonstrates the difficulties of deliberating such properties by providing a historical case study that analyses US renewable energy policy from the end of World War II through the energy crisis of the 1970s. The book illuminates the ways beliefs and values come to dominate official problem frames and get entrenched in institutions. In doing so it also explains why advocates of renewable energy have often faced ideological opposition, and why policy makers fail to take them seriously.

‘A useful overview of the hopes and fears of the UK nuclear industry … this is a fascinating account of US federal policy on renewable energy between 1945 and 1980, together with a well-argued analysis of general energy and technology policy advocacy using the solar industry as an example.’

Mark Hammonds Source: The Journal of Energy Literature

'In this fascinating book, Frank Laird has achieved a rare combination of rich historical detail with a compelling and timely thesis about the interaction of ideas, institutions, and new technology.'

David H. Guston - Rutgers University

'Frank Laird has produced a thoughtful and perceptive analysis of both solar energy policy and of the larger domain of technology policy. This work, I am sure, will become a standard in the field.'

Dr. Patrick W. Hamlett - North Carolina State University