Will We See Solar Panels on the White House? Or Are They Already There?
Imagine my surprise when, as I went about investigating the title question to this post, I discovered that there are currently solar panels on the White House. And to find out that they were put there by George W. Bush, a president who vowed to kill the renewal of federal solar incentives and would have but for their attachment to the infamous banker bailout bill.
Yes former President G.W. Bush, supporter of big oil and gas companies and suppressor of climate change information, installed not one, not two, but three separate solar systems at the White House in 2003. There are two solar thermal systems, which provide hot water for landscaping personnel and the presidential pool and spa, and a third, photovoltaic array that contributes to the White House’s electricity needs.
What is even more amazing is how so few people have come to know about these installations. How, in all my study of the solar industry, did I never even catch a passing reference to their existence? Perhaps I just wasn’t looking for them directly. Perhaps it’s because the Bush administration never really announced the project, which was done somewhat below radar.
But why? Why would a President in this day and age not wave flags and erect huge banners to celebrate at least a symbolic support of renewable energy? That is a difficult question. The White House, for “security reasons,” has not released how much energy the systems actually produce but, according to Cooler Planet, they admit that the systems are more symbolic in nature than anything else: a symbol, apparently, not worth talking much about.
Most of us have heard the story of Jimmy Carter’s solar hot water installation and Ronald Reagan’s subsequent removal of it in 1986 (including the killing of Carter’s solar tax incentives), but Bush’s symbolic support remains a seemingly underground footnote (perhaps because it was in fact purely symbolic).
At any rate, it is good to see solar panels on the White House, even if we don’t know how well they’re working, or even if they’re doing anything at all. I hope and wager that the new administration will take more a detailed and more public look at the solar potential of the White House and other government installations.
I am still waiting for a response to my own inquiries regarding even more solar panels at the White House. I have a feeling it will be a rather long wait (if only I were actually Dan Rather). I would also wager that this time around you’ll be hearing a lot more about a new Presidential solar system when the time comes.
Want to know what happened to Carter’s solar collectors? Look here.
Want to ask President Obama about it too? Try the White House.
Posted on February 12th in Solar News by Dan.