Ronald Reagan Solar Panels White House

Regan felt that the equipment was just a joke and he had it taken down the panels were removed in 1986 when work was being done on the white house roof below the panels.

Ronald reagan solar panels white house. George charles szego the engineer who persuaded carter to install the solar panels reportedly claimed that reagan s chief of staff donald t. Multiply by reagan s 32 solar panels and you get 33 6 kwh of clean energy every day for free. Solar panels finally back on the white house almost 30 years after reagan removed them new 50 comments by nathan ingraham may 9 2014 1 50pm edt. This symbolic installation was taken down in 1986 during the reagan presidency.

The average solar panel from the era produces approximately 1 05 kwh of energy every day. On june 20 1979 the carter administration installed 32 panels designed to harvest the sun s rays and use them to heat water. Solar panels will be installed on the white house roof a quarter of a century after they were removed by ronald reagan the obama administration said today. 365 days a year 24 year that s 294 336 kwh of dirty energy bought and burned because of one bad decision by ronald reagan.

But in a curious parallel with the current occupant of the white house the panels weren t actually removed until 1986 five years after reagan took office. Reagan saw the solar panels installed by carter for what they were a public relations stunt and ordered them dismantled. Reagan who didn t think much of solar energy also allowed the tax credit carter had instated to lapse. In 1986 when the price of energy was temporarily cheaper and americans minds were less focused on environmental issues president reagan ordered the panels removed from the white house roof.

The white house itself once harvested the power of the sun. In 1991 unity college an environmentally centered college in maine acquired the panels and later installed them on their cafeteria. Under reagan funding was cut for the newly formed department of energy and in 1986 when the white house needed roof repairs under the solar thermal panels the reagan administration removed the panels and quietly decided to not reinstall them claiming it simply wasn t a cost effective option.