Northeast Companies Bring Solar to the White House

Several companies based in the northeast worked together to install a photovoltaic system and two solar thermal systems at the White House in Washington, DC. The National Park Service, which has been taking steps to promote sustainable energy at its sites around the country, oversaw the project. Massachusetts-based Solar Design Associates and Evergreen Solar, as well as Maryland-based Aurora Energy and Daystar Energy Services, played important roles in the project.  

James Doherty, the architect and project manager at the National Park Service Office for White House Liaison, said, "We believe in these technologies, and they've been working for us very successfully. The National Park Service as a whole has long been interested in both sustainable design and renewable energy sources.  We also have a mission to lower our energy consumption at all our sites, and we saw an opportunity to do both at the White House grounds."

The Park Service retained one of the nation’s leading solar designers, Steven Strong of Solar Design Associates (SDA), to carry out the project. He in turn selected Evergreen Solar to provide the photovoltaic panels and California-based SunEarth, Inc. to produce the solar thermal absorber plates. In both cases, Strong and the Park Service wanted to use American manufacturers of high-quality products. Aurora Energy and Daystar Energy Services then installed the systems under SDA’s supervision.

Generating Electricity for the White House
The PV system is a 9 kilowatt system, consisting of 167 modules of 51 watts. It sits on the roof of the White House’s main grounds maintenance building. It is connected to the electricity grid, using a bank of Sunny Boy 2500 inverter modules produced by SMA-America.  

Although this is a relatively ordinary application of photovoltaic technology that supplies only a small share of the White House’s electricity needs, it nevertheless represents an important breakthrough and makes a powerful statement. It shows that solar electricity has moved well beyond the experimental stage and is now a mainstream commodity that can be placed in settings as prestigious and sensitive as the White House with assurance that it will produce a reliable, predictable output of electricity.

As Strong notes, the White House installation is "not so much a technical triumph as a policy triumph. Sustainable, environmentally responsive solar electric systems have been in use from Maine to California for three decades, but there is something special about an installation at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."

To measure the system’ output and demonstrate its ability to reliably generate electricity, it includes a data acquisition system which records the solar electricity produced.  A similar system records the harvest from the solar thermal system.  Both systems are interfaced with the White House energy management system.

Solar Thermal Remains Relevant
One of the solar thermal systems heats the First Family’s pool and spa, while the other one warms domestic hot water. The inclusion of these two systems in the overall installation is noteworthy since it symbolizes the continued relevance of solar water heating technology. In recent years, PV has received considerable attention while sales of solar thermal systems have languished in most of the country. Yet solar water heating systems can be quite cost-effective and reliable in many settings. "We employ solar thermal systems for space and water heating in every building we design," notes Strong.