The sun sets behind photovoltaic solar panels at Benban Solar Park, one of the world’s largest solar power plant in the world, on Oct. 19, 2022, in Aswan, Egypt.
Amr Nabil/AP
In the ’70s, it all seemed so simple.
President Carter issued a proclamation declaring the sun “an inexhaustible source of clean energy.” A joint resolution of Congress predicted that “the development of solar technologies will provide an abundant, economical, safe, and environmentally compatible energy supply.” Robert Redford assured Americans that “the sun will always work” and “never increase its price on a heating bill.”
But nearly 50 years later, solar’s failure is blindingly clear. The Southwest Public Policy Institute recently explored the contribution sunshine makes to utility-scale electricity generation in the eight states we study: Oklahoma,…