In the wake of the energy crisis and impending collapse of the nuclear power industry, Jimmy Carter installed some solar hot water panels on the roof of the White House. When Reagan came to power, he pulled them down, like all symbolically. But, wait, then what happened to them?

Turns out that both Google and a couple of Swiss filmmakers, Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller, are now on the case.  A Google clean energy advocate put together this post, while the filmmakers made A Road Not Taken, trailer embedded above. The short answer? They ended up at tiny college in Maine. Alice Ryan of Google:

In 1992, Unity College located the panels and transferred them from a General Services Administration warehouse to their campus in Maine. After restoration,16 panels provided their cafeteria with hot water for the next 12 years. In cooperation with Unity College, Google was able to bring one of these panels down to our Washington DC office for display throughout the next year.

Frank Laird, of the University of Colorado-Denver provides some pretty sophisticated analysis for how and why the panels become such a symbol of the left/right divide over green energy is his book, Solar Energy, Technology Policy, and Institutional Values. It’s an excellent book — and well worth checking out.

Via > Huffington Post