Via Daily Surge:
The Obama administration recently announced it had finished installing 44 kilowatt hours of solar panels on parts of the White House roof, just in time for the president to announce his plan to push more solar panel and energy efficiency policies.
“On America’s path toward a clean energy future, solar power is an increasingly important building block,” the White House said. “That’s why we installed solar panels on the roof of the White House – it’s a clear sign of our commitment to energy efficiency.”
The administration says that the White House solar panels will provide 6.3 kilowatts of power when the sun is shining. But the sun has to be at the right angle for solar power to generate enough power, which only happens between six and seven hours of the day (with lots of exceptions of course).
White House solar panels will generate about 44 kilowatt hours of electricity per day (6.3 kilowatts multiplied by 7 hours). This may sound like a lot of solar power, but it’s not when taken into context.
Data from the Energy Department (DOE) also shows that the White House solar panels will likely deliver underwhelming results. DOE says that televisions use between 65 and 170 watts of power (varies based on size). This means that the White House solar array would only be able to power about 44 minutes of television per day on a 19 inch screen TV.