In light of the conferences, technical and popular publications, the creation of new institutions outside of government, and the intermittent interest of senior government officials, why was there so little official action on solar energy before the 1970s? The customary explanations of short-term policies or markets do not hold up to closer scrutiny. Clearly, due to the relatively high cost of solar energy from the 1940s through the 1960s and the declining prices of fossil fuels during the same period, the research, development, and diffusion of solar technologies would have required the support of some institution willing and able to take a very long-term view of the future needs for energy resources. While one often hears the glib complaint that governments never take long-term perspectives on policy issues, in fact such institutions and leadership were very much in existence in the decades after World War II. These long-term investments showed up in Republican and Democratic administrations alike, such as Eisenhower's initiative on the Interstate Highway System, Kennedy's support of a greatly expanded space program, and Johnson's Great Society programs. Although always constrained by budgets, all of these administrations invested in future-oriented projects, ones that required a certain amount of vision and commitment to the nation's development. Solar technologies could have been, but were not, included among them.

Another standard reason given to explain the failure of solar energy to develop in these years focuses on the lack of any pressing short-term need for it.