The White House, which only last month rebuffed a proposal by activists to reinstall one of former President Carter’s solar panels atop the executive mansion, plans to announce Tuesday that it will be adopting solar power after all.

Nancy Sutley, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and Steven Chu, the energy secretary, will unveil plans to place photovoltaic solar collectors and a solar hot water heater atop 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to heat water and provide a small amount of electricity for the residence.

“This project reflects President Obama’s strong commitment to U.S. leadership in solar energy and the jobs it will create here at home,” Secretary Chu said in a statement. “Deploying solar energy technologies across the country will help America lead the global economy for years to come.”

President Ronald Reagan dismantled Mr. Carter’s solar array in 1986, but the first President Bush installed a modest solar system to power a maintenance building and heat the White House swimming pool.

The announcement is part of a broader administration push to promote renewable energy and reduce emissions of climate altering gases produced by fossil fuels. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is expected to announce Tuesday that he is approving two large solar collection systems in the California desert. The Interior Department is also making plans for a series of offshore wind generation farms off the East Coast.

The president, who has said that addressing climate change is one of his top priorities, is taking such unilateral steps because Congress has failed to act on comprehensive climate and energy legislation.

Bill McKibben, the climate change activist who drove the Carter solar panel to Washington from Maine last month and asked the White House to put it on the roof, said Tuesday he was thrilled that the White House had seen the light.

“The White House did the right thing, and for the right reasons: they listened to the Americans who asked for solar on their roof, and they listened to the scientists and engineers who told them this is the path to the future,” Mr. McKibben said in a statement. “If it has anything like the effect of the White House garden, it could be a trigger for a wave of solar installations across the country and around the world.”

The solar power industry also applauded the White House action as a symbolic sign of its commitment to renewable energy.

“As we enter the second decade of the 21st century experiencing a horrific oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a devastating natural gas explosion in California, death of 25 West Virginia coal miners, kidnapped uranium miners in Niger — it’s about time for the United States to reposition itself as a global leader in solar and the entire portfolio renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies critical to our economic and national security,” said Scott Sklar, president of the Stella Group, which promotes renewable power generation.

Full release below:

THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Office of Public Affairs

News Media Contact: For Immediate Release:

(202) 586-4940 Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Obama Administration Announces Plans to Install New Solar Panels on the White House Residence

WASHINGTON – U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ) Chair Nancy Sutley today announced plans to install solar panels and a solar hot water heater on the roof of the White House Residence. These two solar installations will be part of a Department of Energy demonstration project showing that American solar technologies are available, reliable, and ready for installation in homes throughout the country.

Secretary Chu and Chair Sutley made the announcement during CEQ’s 2010 GreenGov Symposium, which is bringing together leaders from Federal, state and local governments, nonprofit and academic communities and the private sector to identify opportunities around greening the Federal Government.

“This project reflects President Obama’s strong commitment to U.S. leadership in solar energy and the jobs it will create here at home,” said Secretary Chu. “Deploying solar energy technologies across the country will help America lead the global economy for years to come.”

“President Obama has said the Federal Government has to lead by example in creating opportunity and jobs in clean energy,” said Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. “By installing solar panels on arguably the most famous house in the country, his residence, the President is underscoring that commitment to lead and the promise and importance of renewable energy in the United States.”

The PV system will convert sunlight directly to electricity. The solar hot water heater will have a solar collector facing the sun that will heat water for use in the White House Residence. The Department of Energy will now begin a competitive procurement process to select the company responsible for the installations.

By installing solar panels on their homes, consumers are able to effectively lock in the price of electricity they will pay in the years ahead, acting as an insulator against future rises in electricity prices since the systems installed in homes today are expected to last approximately thirty years. Financial incentives are also available to offset the initial costs of installing solar energy systems, including a 30 percent federal tax credit and additional state, local, and utility incentive programs to encourage the deployment of renewable energy. Visit here for additional information about state, local and utility rebates for solar generation throughout the country.

The deployment of solar energy and other renewable energy sources will help expand U.S. clean energy manufacturing and create new jobs for American workers. As a result of investments under the Recovery Act, the solar energy industry is growing and solar resources can now be seen in communities nationwide. In the coming years, continued investments in innovation and cutting-edge solar technologies will help make solar energy cost-competitive with conventional electricity sources all across the country.

This announcement is made on the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s Executive Order 13514 on Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance, which called on the Federal Government to lead by example towards a clean energy economy and reduce, measure and report direct and indirect greenhouse gas pollution. In support of this goal, the Department of Energy also released “Procuring Solar Energy: A Guide for Federal Facility Decision Makers” to support the use of solar energy throughout the Federal Government. The full guide is available here.