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Solar panels star in movie UNITY — Historic solar panels on top of the Unity College dining hall have landed in a documentary movie created by two Swiss filmmakers.
Filmmakers Roman Keller and Christina Hemauer set out to explain why U.S. energy policy “is where it is” now when President Jimmy Carter raised questions about sustainability and the dangers of oil dependency, said Mark Tardif, associate director of college communications. President Carter had the solar panels installed on the roof of the West Wing of the White House in 1978-79, after he delivered a televised speech to the nation in 1977, calling for 20 percent of American energy to come from solar power by 2000. Tax deductions were offered for homeowners who installed them.
There have been various myths about their removal, according to Mick Womersley, associate professor and director of sustainability. One is that President Reagan’s Attorney General Edwin Meese ordered them gone because they gave the wrong impression about America as a superpower. Another is that the roof leaked and the panels were taken down to allow repairs to be made. They were never replaced. Someone at Unity College read about the panels and tracked them to a warehouse in Virginia, Tardif said. “We got permission to take them and an administrator drove our old school bus to Virginia and picked up the panels. They’re technically on loan,” he said. The panels needed to be refurbished and donations were sought. Actress Glenn Close, who has a summer home in the area, donated the biggest chunk of money, but Fleet Bank and others also made contributions, he said. Sixteen of the panels heated water for the cafeteria from the Coop roof for more than a decade. Other panels were placed in storage and students experimented with one or two. The solar panels are no longer operational, Tardif said, but remain on top of the building as a part of American history. Tardif said last year, two documentary filmmakers from Switzerland decided to make a film to explain U.S. energy policy. Looking at rising fuel prices, President Carter decided to wage what he called “a moral equivalent of war” on the energy crisis and he sought to reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil. Carter set a goal of satisfying 20 percent of America’s energy needs with solar power by the year 2000. He talked Congress into creating the U.S. Department of Energy in 1977. The president wore sweaters, and installed a wood stove in the West Wing of the White House and 32 solar panels on the roof. During the Reagan Administration in the 1980s, cuts were made to the energy budget when financial problems arose. The panels were removed from the roof. Keller and Hemauer talked with people at Unity College about their historic solar panels and Unity College people decided to give one panel each to the Carter Center in Atlanta and the Smithsonian Institution. Sara Trunzo, now a 22-year-old senior at Unity College, said she and Jason Reynolds, who was the sustainability coordinator for the college, co-owned a Dodge Ram pickup truck that had been converted to a “grease truck” and ran on waste vegetable oil. Trunzo and Reynolds had both been students when the conversion was made. They coordinated efforts with the filmmakers and drove to Atlanta to deliver a panel to the Carter Center. Trunzo described it as a “journey across America.” “The solar panel is part of a display there,” she said. “It was awesome.” Keller and Hemauer could only get an interview with a high-ranking person at the Carter Center, but later returned when they were able to line up a session with the former president. The result was “A Moral Equivalent of War: A Curiosity, a Museum Piece and an Example of the Road Not Taken (2006-7),” which has been submitted to the film festival. The Maine International Film Festival lasts for 10 days and shows more than 80 movies, representing the best of American independent and international cinema, according to the MIFF Website. The films are shown at Waterville Opera House and Railroad Square Cinema in Waterville.
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