Funding withdrawal doomed mass-market solar heating by the early 1960s

Evidence

Without a strong commitment of government or corporate funds, the dream of a mass market for solar technology soon dimmed. The MIT researchers called it quits in 1962. Though the number of demonstration homes continued to grow, the projects were too far removed from commercial reality to influence the homebuilding industry. In the early 1970s, when the oil embargo revived interest in alternative energy sources, the United States still had only about 75 buildings with solar heating equipment. — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 229

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Early solar advocates’ humanitarian arguments failed to attract corporate or state backing — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 226