The Alamosa Photovoltaic (PV) Solar Plant, 8.2 MW, Colorado

If you want a rough estimate of solar power's growth in the United States over the past 35 years, all you really need to look at is the ever-changing solar capacity at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

When President Jimmy Carter installed a solar water heating system on the White House roof in the 1970s, the industry made a quantum leap across the nation. Not by coincidence. Spurred by skyrocketing oil costs, Carter oversaw an unprecedented government investment into solar and other renewable energy sources. The hundreds of millions of dollars in research funds layed the groundwork for many of today's technologies.

When Ronald Reagan moved in, the solar panels came down - as did government support for solar. Germany and Japan bought up entire R&D laboratories in the US and scores of patents at fire sale prices. America's preeminent position in solar power came tumbling down.

That bleak picture didn't change much until George W. Bush took up residence in the White House. With no fanfare, solar power was again harnessed at that famous address - in a more modest way. Since that time, as the price of oil began to rise, so did Americans' interest in and use of solar PV.

Since the Obamas have moved into the White House there's been little new on the White House itself. (Although solar advocate Tor Valenza, a.k.a., "Solar Fred," has organized a campaign to convince the administration to go "all-solar" if Tor can find companies and installers to donate the entire system.)

In the meantime, government funding has surged for research in advanced solar technologies and for incentives to homeowners and commercial buyers to install solar PV and rooftop water heaters. As the true cost of coal-fired electricity is internalized (included in the price), states have begun the transition away from fossil fuels. Just this week, Colorado raised the percentage of electricity that utilities must generate from renewable sources like wind and solar to 30% by 2020. A furious public outcry in neighboring Arizona forced conservatives in the state legislature to drop a bill that would have erased a similar, but lesser, requirement there.

The support for alternative energy is national. A poll released earlier this month by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found the 78% of Americans favor more federal support for R&D into solar, wind and hydrogen energy.

On Tuesday a trio of top solar business executives joined Senator Bernie Sanders (VT) and members of the group Environment America on the Capitol's east lawn to announce a plan that until recently would have sounded far-fetched.

With a copy of "Building a Solar Future" in one hand, Environment America's Sean Garren told reporters, "In this report we outline a vision for using the sun to meet 10 percent of the United States' total energy needs by 2030."

Not merely 10 percent of electricity, but 10 percent of all energy used in the US. (You can download a pdf copy of the report here.)

Senator Sanders, who recently introduced his own solar initiative (see this interview with Senator Sanders on his 10 Million Solar Roofs program, by Grist's David Roberts), talked about why such a plan is needed.

"At a time when we spend $350 billion importing oil from Saudi Arabia and other countries every year, the United States must move away from foreign oil to energy independence. A dramatic expansion of solar power is a clean and economical way to help break our dependence on foreign oil, reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, improve our geopolitical position, and create good-paying green jobs."

Seizing the Solar Solution

In considering the full gamut of solar technologies, from passive solar design to utility scale concentrating solar power towers, the new report differs from one released in Copenhagen at December's climate summit. That study, a joint production of the US and European solar trade industries, focused solely on PV installation. Even with that narrow focus, the report predicted that 12% of the EU's total electrical needs could be met using PV alone by 2020.

"Solar energy has significant potential to fight global climate change," Winfried Hoffman, a German solar advocate, said in December. "For example, in Europe alone, meeting the 12 percent PV industry target would imply an avoidance of 220 million tons of CO2 annually by 2020. That is the equivalent to Germany´s CO2 emissions in 2006."

Not a Panacea

There's a danger, of course in over-selling solar power. Look at how people turned against nuclear power, for example, when the "100% safe" source of energy that would be "too cheap to meter" turned out to have significant risks and a sticker price that was out of sight.

Solar power is no panacea for high unemployment, national security issues or climate change. Energy harnessed from the sun, however, does have a key role to play in all of these important areas -- as this sweeping and authoritative study proves.

Writing in today's Denver Post, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter was correct when he predicted that: "The New Energy Economy will be a lasting legacy to our children and the children of generations to come."