It all seemed so simple 40 years ago. Science and industry would join forces to convert the rays of the sun into cheap and plentiful power for all. Dependence upon coal and water as sources for electricity would be broken, and a new industry would spring up creating jobs and healing the earth's environment simultaneously.

It didn't quite work out that way. Yet the current chaotic state of the solar power market in the United States may, some suggest, represent a segue into a stable solar industry at last.

A snapshot of the solar power business on the Front Range offers a glimpse into what's happening nationally.

A passel of small-to-mid-sized businesses that sprung up to mine the consumer side of solar is waiting for a new boom that has yet to materialize.

Equipment manufacturers have had even less luck; most notably, Loveland-based Abound Solar was forced to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy earlier this year.

The industry's tougher times in part are a result of the politics that gave birth to solar, and then abruptly abandoned it.

Environmentalists and their political allies around the U.S. fought for and won various incentives for solar equipment manufacturers and solar power