With little fanfare, the Bush administration has installed three solar energy systems on the grounds of the White House.
It happened last August, when, over the course of three days, the White House had 167 solar energy panels placed atop a maintenance building outside the residence. On two other buildings -- an adjoining maintenance building and the president's cabana -- systems were installed that will help heat the water for, among other uses, the presidential pool and spa.
Solar energy panels installed in August now line the roofs of the White House pool cabana and two other buildings, providing hot water and heat for the presidential pool and spa.
(Steven Strong -- Solar Design Associates)
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None of the solar energy systems are visible from the street -- you would have to climb to near the top of the adjacent Eisenhower Executive Office Building to see them. The systems were designed by Solar Design Associates of Massachusetts.
The White House and the National Park Service, which oversee the projects, could not say how much power the systems are generating -- or how much money they are saving the public. But the Park Service and the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade association, agreed the projects are small.
With Washington's climate and the pitch of the building roofs considered less than ideal, the output of any system would be limited, said one of the project's managers.
"I think the symbolic nature of this exceeds the actual kilowatts produced," said SEIA spokesman Michael Paranzino.
That was probably the case during the energy crisis of the 1970s, when President Jimmy Carter donned a sweater, turned down his thermostat -- and had a solar-powered water system installed. It was later removed by President Ronald Reagan, who shipped the panels off to Unity College in Maine, where they still heat the water for the school's cafeteria.
But if the new systems are primarily symbolic, no one, it seems, has told the White House. President Bush, who uses solar power on his ranch in Texas, has yet to trumpet the little-noticed panels, as evidence, perhaps, of his support for renewable energy.
A spokeswoman for the White House said the administration considered the changes an internal matter that it did not need to publicize.
