Obama lobbied to add solar panels to White House

[nmbluesky]

Solar White House is back.. Reagan torn Solar down..


A campaign to make the White House greener is intensifying as a group of environmentalists plan this month to give President Obama a solar panel that used to sit atop 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.


CAPTIONBy Nancie Battaglia
Environmentalist and author Bill McKibben says he's joining a team from Unity College for a "Put Solar On It" road trip to Washington. The group, set to depart Unity, Maine, Sept. 7, will deliver a solar panel that President Jimmy Carter had installed on the White House in 1979 but was removed in 1986 and placed in storage.

"We're taking them back to the White House...It's time to put these back up," McKibben said last night on the Late Show With David Letterman. He said the Obamas have shown interest in green living, citing the first lady's organic vegetable garden.


CAPTIONBy Jessica Brandi Lifland/for Sunge, Business Wire
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"Planting a garden doesn't threaten the oil and gas industry," Letterman chided. He asked McKibben to talk about his latest book on climate change, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. "Thanks, Bill, for just scaring the crap out of me," Letterman said.

McKibben's not alone in pushing for a solar-powered White House. A coalition of solar companies led by Sungevity has offered Obama a free rooftop solar array worth $107,900 that it says would reduce the White House's electric bills 81%. Its "Globama" campaign is encouraging people to sign a petition to get the White House to agree.

Carter had placed 32 solar panels atop the White House, but they were removed during President Ronald Reagan's administration, which also allowed Carter's solar tax credits to expire in 1985.

In the early 1990's Unity College, recently named one of the "greenest" colleges in the United States, relocated the panels to its campus. Sixteen of them were refurbished and heated water in the cafeteria for about a decade.

The White House panels are the focus of a 2010 documentary, A Road Not Taken, shown at numerous film festivals, by Swiss filmmakers Christina Hemaner and Roman Keller.

Obama has made a big push to promote renewable energy, devoting millions in Recovery Act funds to develop affordable solar and wind power. He's also pledged to make the federal government more energy efficient.

[liberal N proud]

1. Sounds like an excellent idea

He should also mandate that cities and towns all across the country change their codes to allow for home owners to use solar.

[Posteritatis]

2. Not that I disagree, but that's probably a wee bit outside his authority. (nt)

[zipplewrath]

4. Carter did

I'm dubious he can't arrange this if he wants to. He has a discretionary budget that could easily cover any ancillary costs.

[Posteritatis]

6. Carter rewrote municipal building codes nationwide by fiat? (nt)

[zipplewrath]

8. Ah

I see, thread drift.

No, obviously he didn't. Obama might be able to by executive order, but he'd be sued within an inch of his life. He could attach conditions to certain funds, especially stimulus funds to coerce such an outcome. It's how we got seat belt laws, and 21 year old drinking laws (well, congress helped on some of that). It's also how we got street signs and road markings to be relatively universal as well. Regulatory power is rather... well... powerful.

[jwirr]

10. He can attach funding to cities but he can also speak in favor of cities

changing their laws to reflect the need for new ideas.

[RockaFowler]

3. I hate all the hoops you have to go through now

[hedgehog]

5. I think they need to put a brand new state-of-the-art panel

up on that roof.

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. They're not really going to put 30 year old panels on the WH, are they?

There have been so many advances in the field they'd do much better to put up something a little less antique.

[EC]

9. Good, but

I rather they used newer more efficent ones that would also promote some of the new products...the old ones are just that - OLD

[NYC_SKP]

11. Carter's were solar water heaters. There are already solar PV systems at the Whitehouse, more would

be terrific.

I'm not sure about the numbers in this OP: $107,900 would buy about 20-25 kW system, not nearly enough to offset the Whitehouse by 81% I suspect.

In any case, this is great news and I hope he goes for it.

Now about those Carter "solar panels":

Carter had solar thermal water heating panels, not photovoltaic, just to correct any misunderstandings about the panels.

Lot's of solar on the whitehouse grounds today:

Water heating panels:

Solar PV modules:

Solar at the White House

Solar energy has returned to the White House complex. While the White House has kept pretty quiet about it, three solar installations were completed last summer on White House buildings and are now generating renewable power and hot water. Here are the details:
Solar hot water panels on roof
White House cabana showing flush-mount solar water heating system.
Installing the solar panels
Photos: Evergreen Solar, Inc.

Installing PV panels on a National Park Service maintenance building at the White House.

In July and August, three solar energy systems, designed by Steven Strong of Solar Design Associates in Harvard, Massachusetts, were installed on two separate White House buildings. The first of these, a large 8.75 peak-kilowatt photovoltaic (PV) system, was installed on the National Park Service maintenance building located in the southwest corner of the 16-acre (6.5 ha) White House grounds. This system consists of 167 EC-51 PV modules, each rated at 51 watts, manufactured by Evergreen Solar of Marlboro, Massachusetts. Three 2,500-watt Sunny Boy inverters, provided by SMA Americas (a division of the German manufacturer SMA), convert this DC electricity into AC power that is fed into the White House electricity grid.

On the same building, a residential-scale solar water heating system was installed to provide hot water for landscape maintenance personnel. This system is comprised of two 4' x 8' (1.2 x 2.4 m) flat-plate collectors made by SunEarth, Inc., of Ontario, California. These panels were installed using a typical stand-off mount in a drain-back configuration (for more on solar water heating.

The third installation is a five-panel, building-integrated solar hot water system on the White House cabana next to the presidential pool and spa. This system is integrated into a terne-coated, standing-seam copper roof. The inset design of the panels provides a relatively flush profile (see photo). Hot water produced by this system heats a hot tub and shower, with any extra energy going into the outdoor pool. The absorber plates for these panels were made by SunEarth, but the rest of the system was site-manufactured for better integration with the roof.

http://www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/solarwhitehouse.htm

[ensho]

12. the first lady's organic vegetable garden threatened the Ag Barons

turned the seed business upside down sparking with activity

and the chemical Barons are upset by green veg. gardening

good shock waves are still going around the world re: the first lady's organic veg. garden

[ClarkUSA]

18. Good point.

:thumbsup:

[Dragonbreathp9d]

13. Mr Obama, put those panels up!

[wpelb]

15. Barack Obama: 'no' to solar panels on the White House roof

"A California company Sungevity had offered to equip the White House with the latest technology.

"But the White House declined - twitchy perhaps about inviting any comparison to one-term Democratic president Carter in the run-up to the very difficult mid-term elections in November. The White House did send three staffers to meet the campaigners."

Link

Don't want any comparisons to Jimmy Carter.

[joe black]

14. Like he lobbied for health care single payer.

[JNelson6563]

16. Just like Bush!

Er, wait...nevermind.

Julie

[Radical Activist]

17. The White House already has photovoltaic solar.