Throwback Thursday: 70s Solar Subsidies

A photo spread on energy-efficiency end caps shared the page with an update on President Carter’s proposal for solar-energy subsidies.

This was the July 30, 1979 issue of National Home Center News, the forerunner of HBSDealer.

Examples of effective in-store messaging were provided by Central Hardware of St. Charles, Missouri (photo above);  Crissey-Flower Lumber of Colorado Springs; and Moore Handley Homecrafters of Vestavia Hills, Alabama (photo below).

Carter called for the creation of a solar energy bank which would subsidize the interest on loans up to $10,000 from private lenders to homeowners who install solar energy devices. According to the article, funds for the bank would come from a proposed “windfall profits” tax on oil companies.