Last October, U.S. President Barack Obama made a commitment to install solar panels and a solar hot water system on the roof of the White House; a project that is still yet to be carried out.
It’s been over 25 years since the solar hot water system President Jimmy Carter had installed was removed from the White House roof by the Reagan Administration.
Last year, after increasing pressure from the American public for President Obama to install solar power as a very visible sign of support for renewable energy, he promised to have a rooftop system in place by the end of spring in 2011.
Spring officially ended yesterday without a single solar panel visible on the White House roof; drawing criticism from the U.S. solar industry, environmental groups and solar supporters.
Responding to the outcry, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technology Program issued a press release stating, “the Energy Department remains on the path to complete the White House solar demonstration project, in keeping with our commitment, and we look forward to sharing more information — including additional details on the timing of this project — after the competitive procurement process is completed.”
While a disappointment, at least times have changed to a degree that once the system is installed, the likelihood of it ever being pulled down again is remote and the situation is a reminder of what might have been. In this respect, President Jimmy Carter was a visionary – had that system not been removed by Reagan and had the Reagan administration not considered solar power “a joke“; perhaps renewable energy technology and uptake might have evolved to a point already where carbon dioxide emissions would not present the global threat they do today – or at least bought us a little more time.
“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 a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people, harnessing the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil.” – Jimmy Carter, 1979
