Solar Energy, Technology Policy, and Institutional Values [Paperback]

Analyses US renewable energy policy from World War II through 1970s energy crisis.Energy policies influence the shape of emergent technological systems, and also condition our social, political, and economic lives. This book demonstrates the difficulties of deliberating such properties by providing a historical case study that analyzes U.S. renewable energy policy from the end of World War II through the energy crisis of the 1970s. It illuminates the ways beliefs and values come to dominate official problem frames and get entrenched in institutions.Energy policies influence the shape of emergent technological systems, and also condition our social, political, and economic lives. This book demonstrates the difficulties of deliberating such properties by providing a historical case study that analyzes U.S. renewable energy policy from the end of World War II through the energy crisis of the 1970s. It illuminates the ways beliefs and values come to dominate official problem frames and get entrenched in institutions.Energy policies influence the shape of emergent technological systems, and also condition our social, political, and economic lives. This book demonstrates the difficulties of deliberating such properties by providing a historical case study that analyzes U.S. renewable energy policy from the end of World War II through the energy crisis of the 1970s. It illuminates the ways beliefs and values come to dominate official problem frames and get entrenched in institutions.Preface; Acknowledgments; Note on sources and archival abbreviations; Introduction: solar energy, ideas and public policy; Part I. Before the Energy Crisis: 1. Framing the energy problem before the energy crisis; 2. Creating policy for the future; 3. Advocates construct solar technology; 4. Solar energy's incompatibility with official problem frames; Part II. During the Energy Crisis: 5. Problem frames during the energy crisis; 6. Solar advocacy in the crisis; 7. Limited access: solar advocal“,