© Harvey Georges/AP In 1979, President Jimmy Carter demonstrated a solar installation at the White House. (Harvey George/AP)Many people were surprised when Jimmy Carter came to the White House. Some may be surprised that part of Jimmy Carter's White House ended up in an office building in Takoma Park.
Leaning against a wall at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network office on Carroll Avenue is one of the 32 solar panels that Carter installed on the White House roof in 1979.
Mike Tidwell, executive director of the environmental group, said the 6-by-3-foot sign would work if it were posted somewhere. Today, however, it is more of a symbol than a technology that could use our nearest star to heat water.
© Beth Tidwell/Beth Tidwell The White House signs were removed in 1986. They graduated from college in Maine but came to Washington in 2010 to campaign for climate legislation. Today, the sign hangs at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network office in Takoma Park, where CEO Mike Tidwell sees it when he walks through the lobby. (Beth Tidwell)This was also very symbolic in 1979. The symbolism depends on what you think of Carter and his politics. For some, these signs were a much-needed recognition that America needs to move away from fossil fuels, explore alternative energy sources, and help save the planet. For others, they were in the same category as the Virtue Signaling Cardigan. Naturally , critics complained that Carter would install solar panels on the White House.
The panels fell in 1986 during the renovation of the White House roof. Ronald Reagan did not replace them. Of course, don't put solar panels on the Reagan White House.
For the next five years, they did not see the light of day, gathering dust in government warehouses. Greenpeace released a photo of the signs' shameful fate, prompting a development worker at Maine's Unity College to ask if they could be at the small, environmentally conscious school.
Unity's Peter Marbach contacted the General Services Administration and wrote to Carter, who responded that he would like the panels reused.
Greenpeace wanted them to heat the homeless shelter, he said, but the government might decide joining was a less political option. The college has received panels on which water is heated for the communal structure.
In 2010, the planet was in even worse shape. Bill McKibben , an environmentalist and author of books such as The End of Nature, wanted to push the Obama administration to draft a climate bill.
“Bill said. “I know what we're going to do. We'll take one of the [solar] panels on the roof, put it in the van, and drive from Maine to Washington, stopping in Washington on the way. rally,” Tidwell said. "They did this show at the White House."
After the sign appeared, Tacoma Park landscape architect Byrne Kelly recognized it. He helped install it in 1979 while working for a small solar company.
"I was privileged to be there when we had to stress test everything," Kelly told me this week.
© Beth Tidwell/Beth Tidwell Byrne Kelly helped install panels on the White House roof. When he found the panel in 2010, he signed it. (Beth Tidwell)Old solar panels look a little ugly. Tidwell said that after McKibben drove to Washington, he called her and said,
Tidwell did. "It's in our lobby as soon as you walk in," he said.
It is covered in signatures, including Kelly's. He signed it in 2010, writing his name in white on a panel that read "350". What is 350? That's the name of the nonprofit organization McKibben founded, 350.org.
"The number comes from the number of parts per million of carbon that climate scientists think is harmless in the atmosphere," Tidwell said. "We are now at 421."
A month after bringing McKibben's panels to Washington, the Obama administration announced that new panels and a solar water heater would be installed at the mansion. (In 2003 , President George W. Bush installed a photovoltaic system in the maintenance building and two solar thermal systems to heat the White House swimming pool.)
It wasn't until 2013, three years after McKibben brought the sign to DC, that the Obama signs were installed.
In 2013, McKibben told The Washington Post: "Better late than never. In fact, no one should have removed the panels that Jimmy Carter installed on the roof in 1979." “But it's good to know that the earth will get some of that energy from the sun again, at its most powerful address.
I asked Tidwell if he had solar panels on his home in Maryland.
"Yes," he said. "I am very green, I have photovoltaics, I have an electric car, we installed a heat pump a year ago, we no longer use gas in the house, we heat our 110-year-old house with a heat pump. .
Tidwell and McKibben are as active as ever. On Tuesday, they were among workers sitting on rocking chairs blocking the entrance to a downtown bank. Why rocking chairs? The rally was the work of Act Three, a group that wants seniors to join protests against banks that lend to fossil fuel companies.
When Carter installed the solar panels 44 years ago, he said the work would be "either a curiosity, a museum piece, an example off the beaten path, or a small part of one of the greatest and most fascinating." America.
The adventure continues.
see you soon
Find time to gather nuts for squirrel week. I will be back in the area on April 3rd.
