White House Solar Panel

Solar-Thermal Panel by InterTechnology/Solar Corporation, 1979, installed on the roof of the White House by President Jimmy Carter.

This is a flat plate solar collector, which uses the sun’s energy to heat water, reducing the need for boiler use. Sun light shines onto an absorber plate, where it is heated and transferred to water passing behind.

The panel was installed on the White House roof in 1979 as a public symbol of President Jimmy Carter’s faith in ‘the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil’.

See a blog post on the White House solar panel here https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/solar-panels-and-the-white-house/