Solar on the White House

I'm not sure why this post was deleted, but I was about to start a new thread on the same subject, so I undeleted it.  Hope you don't mind.

As you may know, back in 1979 Jimmy Carter put solar panels on the White House roof.  In 1986 during the Reagan Administration, they were taken down for roof maintenance and never reinstalled due to claims that putting them back up would be too expensive (lame excuse!). 

Being that he's one of the 'greenest' presidents in US history, various environmental groups have campaigned to get the Obama Administration to put solar panels back on the White House roof.  Oakland, CA-based Sungevity launched a pretty brilliant campaign IMO, offering to either provide panels and installation as a gift, or as a lease.  You can sign the petition to ask the White House to accept Sungevity's offer here.

I talked to a Sungevity rep who said the company president had talked to White House staff, and it may happen, though of course there's a lot of red tape to go through first.

So after signing the petition I checked out Sungevity's website, having wanted to get solar panels on our house for a while, but not being able to afford to purchase them.  They have a pretty awesome system where you input your address, circle it on an aerial photo from Google Earth, input your monthly electric bill payments, and they give you an iQuote.  They use Google Earth to give you a picture of what the system would look like on your roof, look at surrounding trees and such to find the least shaded spot, and use all that info to give you an accurate quote for how much it would cost to lease or buy a solar system from the company.  All of this takes just a day or two with minimal effort, other than looking up your last 12 months of electric bills (which is super easy with PG&E online).

Another reason I hadn't gotten solar panels is that our house uses very little energy, so it's hard to justify from a financial standpoint too.  The more energy you use, the more financially viable solar panels are.  This is also true for the lease.  I found out from the iQuote that unfortunately leasing the system would have more than doubled my monthly electric bill.  Ah, but then the Sungevity rep told me they have a pre-pay option which cuts the total cost significantly.  By pre-paying for the 10-year lease, the average monthly increase in my electric bill for a system providing 94% of my household energy drops from $50/month to $15/month.  So still a bit higher than my current bill, but quite manageable.  And much more stable than PG&E prices.  The quote assumes your electric rate will continue to rise at the same average rate as over the past 30 years, but I think it's more likely to rise more rapidly in the future.  Plus the lease covers installation, any roofing repairs, maintenance, permitting, etc.  Super easy.

So anyway, I didn't mean to turn this into a commercial for Sungevity, but I think they're pretty awesome.  And maybe I can have the same solar panels as are on the White House, so sign the petition!   And if you're interested in leasing solar panels, check out their iQuote.

I think it would be a great message if Obama was to install panels on his roof!

Prince Charles has just received planning permission to install panels on his home, Clarence House, here in the UK.

It's good for the UK, as the building is 180 years old, so we were unsure if it was to make it through planning!

The real problem is, our politicians, are all the same, it doesn´t matter from which country they are, they are not interested in renewable energy systems.

Since then they would also have to show flag to declare fossil fuels and also nuclear power stations for not anymore usable.

And also the promises something to do for the environment protection are only empty promises or have you forgotten this?

 

High ranking politicans negotiated about the future of our planet. Delegations from 192 countries discussed in Copenhagen how the global warming can to be limited and find Ways to stop global warming.

As we know in the meantime, without any success.

Once again only Bla - Bla and mocking importance on account of the small tax payers !!!

How we can believe of any person from any govnerment politicans or other official offices worldwide ???

 

Quote:

This is great news, I heard he applied, but didn't know he got it. Although it will be a bit odd if he were refused, such a high profile person and building. It does set a great precedent though, I know lots of people living in listed buildings who can't get the permission for solar panels or wind turbines, hopefully this example can be used for future cases. 

It took some effort to find it but on whitehouse.gov it says:

 

Solar Panels on the White House. At the Green Gov Symposium in Washington, DC, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley announced that solar panels and a solar water heater will be installed on the roof of the White House residence this spring.

 

So victory - on to the next 100 million homes and businesses in these United States...