nuclear-news

How the Whitehouse’s solar panels were quietly removed

.In 1986 the Reagan administration quietly dismantled the White House solar panel installation

Where Did the Carter White House’s Solar Panels Go?, Scientific American, By David Biello, August 6, 2010, “…… The White House itself once harvested the power of the sun. On June 30, 1979, the Carter administration installed 32 panels designed to harvest the sun’s rays and use them to heat water.

Here is what Carter predicted at the dedication ceremony: “In the year 2000 this solar water heater behind me, which is being dedicated today, will still be here supplying cheap, efficient energy…. A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people.”
For some of the solar panels it is the former that has come to pass: one resides at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, one at the Carter Library and, as of this week, one will join the collection of the Solar Science and Technology Museum in Dezhou, China………In 1986 the Reagan administration quietly dismantled the White House solar panel installation while resurfacing the roof. “Hey! That system is working. Why don’t you keep it?” recalls mechanical engineer Fred Morse, now of Abengoa Solar, who helped install the original solar panels as director of the solar energy program during the Carter years and then watched as they were dismantled during his tenure in the same job under Reagan. “Hey! This whole [renewable] R&D program is working, why don’t you keep it?”

Where Did the Carter White House’s Solar Panels Go?: Scientific American

August 7, 2010 - Posted by Christina MacPherson | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | antinuclear, climate change, energy efficiency, global warming, renewable energy, solar