Solar Panels Added to White House Roof
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter installed 32 solar panels to the roof of the White House. These panels were mainly used to heat water and were removed in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan during roof repairs. In 2002, George W. Bush added solar panels to a maintenance shed on the grounds to help heat the pool.For the last few years, President Barack Obama has been promising to install photovoltaic solar panels on the White House roof. Although the system was initially planned to produce approximately 19,700 killowatt hours of electricity per year, the final system was scaled back to a mere 6.3kW system. The new system, however, is finally complete and providing power to the high profile residence.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/carter-white-house-solar-panel-array/
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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. Huang Ming, chairman of Himin Solar Energy Group Co., the largest manufacturer of such solar hot water heaters in the world, accepted the donation for permanent display there on August 5. After all, companies like his in China now produce some 80 percent of the solar water heaters used in the world today.
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