Never under estimate the power of an idea whose time has come. Such is the way with solar and renewable energy as Los Angeles prepares for Solar Power International next week (10/12-14) the largest solar show in the US. Recently on the other side of the globe as part of the 350.org Global Work Party to held on 10.10.10, President Nasheed of the Maldives personally got on the roof of his official residents’ to help do the installation. This is a remarkable gesture and one that governors and mayors around America could heed now that President Obama has said he will put solar panels back on the White House roof. Reactions are coming in around the country including one from Rhone Resch, President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association.
“Putting solar on the roof of the nations’ most important home is a powerful symbol calling on all Americans to rethink how we create energy. It’s an example of how each one of us can improve energy security, employ Americans and cut energy costs. I can speak from personal experience that taxpayers will benefit. In the four years since I’ve had solar on my house, I’ve gotten a better return on my solar system than on my 401(k). SEIA has been working with the Obama Administration to install money-saving solar energy on government buildings across the country.
“Earlier this year, in a meeting with President Obama in the Rose Garden, I had the opportunity to point out to the President the large amount of available roof space on top of the White House, baking in the sun,” Resch notes about his direct appeal to President Obama to put solar back on the White House at an Earth Day ceremony in April. This appeal has been echoed by thousands of Americans across the country.
The Obama family joins the Resch family and hundreds of thousands of Americans who have already gone solar, including dozens of members of Congress, former presidential advisors like Reagan Secretary of State George Shulz and former CIA director James Woolsey. “Right now, solar energy is being manufactured in the United States. It is being installed on tens of thousands of homes each year across the nation in all 50 states. And it is creating jobs for hundreds of thousands of Americans. Obama’s decision to install solar on the White House is a prominent example of how solar is working for America today.”