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Solar Power On the White House

Posted by samzenpus on from the red-white-and-green dept.

CartaNova writes "The Obama administration has announced plans to install solar panels and a solar hot water heater on the White House. The Carter administration had previously installed a 32-panel solar system at the White House — which was quietly removed during Reagan's tenure in office. Solar hot water and Photovoltaic firms had been campaigning on this issue for some time."

4 of 405 comments (clear)

  1. solar hot water by bhcompy · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've had solar hot water at my family's home since the early 80s. Looks kind of weird, like giant lasagna pans on the roof, but I'll be damned if they don't work great and keep the gas bill down. Not sure how much it will help in Washington, but worth it in So Cal, especially with the govt kicking in a large tax credit

    1. Re:solar hot water by santax · · Score: 5, Informative

      Once I had a job making swimmingpool-installations. We also had the option of using solarpanels for warming the water. Worked great and the people that bought them had way lower operating costs of the pool. It's an investment at first but it's worth it. In Germany solarpower is huge btw. They have a law there that obligates the powercompanies to actually buy the leftover-green power from the citizens back to the network. Really a country-wide win-win.

  2. Reagan did not remove PV panels AFAIK by rolfwind · · Score: 5, Informative

    He removed solar thermal panels, probably much less efficient than the evacuated tubes used today, when the roof was being repaired in 1986:
    http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE2DF113BF937A1575BC0A960948260

    They were not reinstalled because of cost effectiveness issue. I also heard maintenance was a pain. They were donated to a university, IIRC.

    Bush also had solar panels installed:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/27/technology/how-it-works-from-a-white-house-roof-solar-power-proclaims-gains.html

    Many places are spinning this story politically no doubt.

    BTW, I think solar thermal and more insulation is a great, cost effective thing. PV, otoh, not so much yet.

  3. Quietly my ass by mbone · · Score: 5, Informative

    "...— which was quietly removed during Reagan's tenure in office"

    I don't know what the OP is talking about. This was done very early on and was publicized widely, as a way of showing how the Reagan administration was forward looking and confident, as opposed to the defeatist Carter administration (or something like that - I could never really grasp Reagan's propaganda). What was done fairly quietly was the complete evisceration and cancelation of the Carter era alternative energy research program, which was just at the stage of showing promise. What was left unsaid was how pleased the oil companies were by all of this.