History can be seen as crossroads where people pick paths and live with the consequences, with some paths leading to grave dangers. Election 1980 was one such crossroad as Americans made the feel-good choice of Ronald Reagan over the eat-your-peas option of Jimmy Carter — taking a path to climate catastrophe, says Sam Parry (Consortiumnews, January 29, 2012).

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NewPages Blog

«It turns out Carter’s warning was at least partially correct: two of his solar panels are museum pieces now.»

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«Leave it to the Europeans to thoroughly document a glorious chapter in American history — the comprehensive energy policy of the Carter Administration and the decision in 1979 to install solar panels on the roof of the White House.»

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32 Solar Panels – 32 Years ago

Yesterday – 32 years ago – 32 solar panels were dedicated on the roof of the White House. Today the White House fails to keep its promise to put up a new solar system.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced last October that by the end of this spring solar panels will be put back on the roof of the White House.

Yesterday Ramamoorthy Ramesh, Director of the SunShot Initiative was stating that the DOE remains “on the path” to complete the White House solar demonstration project.

Golden Sun Award Best Documentary

«A Road not Taken» won the Golden Sun Award Best Documentary at FICMA Barcelona.

U.S. Online Shop

Finally – the DVD/book publication of «A Road not Taken» can be ordered worldwide here.

order now

«Summer-Best-of» | Swiss National Television

A ROAD NOT TAKEN will be broadcasted again on Swiss National Television on August 14, 2011, 12:00.

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DVD/Book Publication

The freshly printed publication can be ordered in Europe here and will be available in the United States within a couple of days.

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Swiss National Television

A ROAD NOT TAKEN was broadcasted on Swiss National Television on Mai 8, 2011.

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FICMA 2011: 18th Barcelona International Environmental Film Festival chose A ROAD NOT TAKEN to be part of the official section ( June, 1 – 8 ).

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Ecozine: IV International Film Festival and Environment of Zaragoza in Spain selected A ROAD NOT TAKEN (May, 13 – 21, 2011).

Screening: Wednesday, May 18, 2011, 6 pm

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Forest Row Film Society in Sussex (UK) shows A ROAD NOT TAKEN.

Screening: Friday, May 13, 2011, 8 pm

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The Santa Cruz Film Festival, California included A ROAD NOT TAKEN in the upcoming edition.

Screening: Friday, May 6, 2011, 4 pm

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The INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S FILM FESTIVAL Dortmund | Cologne presents A ROAD NOT TAKEN (April, 12 – 17, 2011)

Screening: Friday, April 15, 2011, 6.15 pm

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Official Selection for CINEMA PLANETA, Cuernavaca City, México (March 11 – 19, 2011)

Screenings: Saturday, 12, 4 pm, Sala 4 Cinemex Diana / Monday, 14, 2 pm, Sala 4 Cinemex Diana / Wednesday, 16, 10 pm, Sala 1 Metrópolis / Friday, 18, 4.45 pm, Sala 1 Metrópolis

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A ROAD NOT TAKEN is programmed at
Princeton Environmental Film Festival 2011

Screening: Wednesday, January 19, 2011, 4 pm

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New solar installation on the presidential home of President Obama’s family by spring 2011.

Probably we’ll never find out if this project had an impact on the administration to put solar back on the White House, but we saw that our constant retelling of the story and our presence on the web since 2006 had some effect.

We hope that our movie helps to understand what Jimmy Carter tried to achieve – more then thirty years ago.

video…
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From 4 to 10 December 2010, the 8th edition of the International Environment Film Festival in Kairouan, Tunisia under the motto: «The Future is in Our Hands» is screening A ROAD NOT TAKEN.

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A ROAD NOT TAKEN chosen for 34th Duisburg Film Week
one of the festivals in Europe which enjoys a long tradition for documentaries.

Screening: Friday, November 11, 12.30 pm

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A ROAD NOT TAKEN official selection at the 3rd edition of MOSTRA DE CIENCIA E CINEMA (October 25 – 30, 2010)

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A ROAD NOT TAKEN chosen for PLANET IN FOCUS, the 11th International Environmental Film Festival in Toronto, Canada

Screening: Friday, October 15, 5 pm

In 1979, in a visionary move, President Jimmy Carter installs a set of solar panels on the roof of the White House, to emphasize his commitment to solving the oil crisis of the time. But when Reagan assumes office a year later, the panels are removed, defining America’s attitudes towards power generation and consumption. Three decades later, the filmmakers follow the trajectory of the panels from a dusty warehouse to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and the Jimmy Carter Library, interviewing President Carter, his speechwriters and the construction team along the way. In a Brechtian fashion, A Road Not Taken reflects on this pivotal moment in political history, shedding light on our current ideological perspectives. It is impossible not to wonder where we would be if the thinking behind Carter’s solar panels, and all that they symbolized, had been maintained.

By Juana Awad

A ROAD NOT TAKEN chosen for CAMDEN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL – one of the leading festivals for documentaries in the US (September 30 – October 3, 2010)

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A ROAD NOT TAKEN invited at Criterio first Ambiental Film Fest in Costa Rica

Screening: Saturday, September 25

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THE BOSTON GLOBE:
Jimmy Carter’s dream
by Beth Daley on September 13, 2010

It’s been almost a generation since the solar panels Jimmy Carter installed on the White House roof were removed. And they won’t be up again anytime soon — even after one of the original panels was driven to the White House last week.

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REPUBLICAN JOURNAL:
’350′ group to return solar panel to White House
by Ethan Andrews on September 9, 2010

The goal of the Unity group’s trip to Washington is not to have the Carter solar panel reinstalled on the White House roof, but to encourage the president to install new solar panels, according to Jason Reynolds, who made the trip with Hemauer and Keller in 2006 and is traveling to Washington with McKibben and company.

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PUT SOLAR ON THE WHITE HOUSE
A road trip to get solar back on the White House!
September 7 – 10th, 2010 with road trip stops at Boston (MA), New York (NY) and Washington (DC)
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This July, 350.org joined with the solar panel company Sungevity to launch a new effort to encourage President Obama to put solar panels on the White House and encourage other world leaders to install panels on their iconic residences. Since then, tens of thousands of people have signed the “Put Solar On It” letter to world leaders.

ATLANTA FILM FEST

Screening: Saturday, August 21, 3.30 pm (Carter Center)

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN:
Where Did the Carter White House’s Solar Panels Go?
by David Biello on August 6, 2010

One of the 32 solar-thermal panels that captured energy on the roof of the White House more than 30 years ago landed this week at a science museum in China.

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Saturday, July 31st at 10am, PDT.
A ROAD NOT TAKEN in Organic Conversation on air!

It can be heard live on the radio in the Bay Area at Green960am or streaming online internationally at Green960.com. After it airs, the episode will be uploaded to www.anorganicconversation.com and iTunes as a podcast.

ABC News today:
GOING GREEN AT THE WHITE HOUSE: WHERE HAVE JIMMY CARTER’S SOLAR PANELS GONE?

“What’s so significant about the Carter solar panels is that … politicians at the time were saying very much the same things you hear politicians saying now about renewable energy, about oil, about priorities, and it really is quite amazing that history repeats itself that way,” Tardif said. “The symbolic aspect of that is very powerful.”

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MAINE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Sunday July, 18, 2010 at 3.30 pm

The Oil Drum: Europe
SOLAR PANELS, JIMMY CARTER, AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHANGE
by Francois Cellier on June 23, 2010

Which road is it that we haven’t taken? Let me start from the beginning.

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MOVIE OF THE WEEK
A ROAD NOT TAKEN was selected as the «Movie of the Week» on Swiss Television Network.

Box Office (German language)

Science Magazine 18 June 2010 Vol 328, pp. 1483 – 1484
TAKES ON HUNTERS AND ROADS

In 1979, Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the roof of the White House. Seven years later, Ronald Reagan had them dismantled. Unity College, Maine, later refurbished the 32 panels and used some of them on its cafeteria. Hemauer and Keller’s documentary follows up on their fate. The filmmakers journey from Maine (where many panels remain in a barn), to Washington, DC (where a lack of paperwork initially precludes donating a panel to the Smithsonian Institution), to Georgia (Carter’s presidential library), and back to Washington (where the National Museum of American History formally accepts a panel). Interspersed interviews and film clips fill in some historical details and suggest current perspectives.
A Road Not Taken clearly delivers its principal message, that the United States moved away from the national conservation policy and development of alternative energy sources that Carter desired.

www.sciencemag.org

SWISS CINEMA PREMIERE
Starting June 20th (exactly 31 years after the dedication of the White House solar installation) A ROAD NOT TAKEN will get on the screens of several cinemas in Switzerland.

List of cities/cinemas (German language)

ITALIAN PREMIERE
A ROAD NOT TAKEN has been selected at the 13th CinemAmbiente Environmental Film Festival (Torino, Italy) within the International Documentary Competition. CinemAmbiente has become a major date in the environmental film festival calendar, offering a diverse program of film showings, debates, readings and other events to promote environmental awareness and education through cinema in joint cooperation with the National Museum of Cinema.

CinemAmbiente June 1.-6. 2010

Grist Magazine
WATCHING THE GREEN SCREENS AT THE ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL IN D.C.
Written by Jennifer Prediger, March 26, 2010

A funny, sad, weird, and illuminating film, it is worth a watch, …

KE9V.net
A ROAD NOT TAKEN
Written by Jeff, KE9V, January 21, 2009

In 1979 President Jimmy Carter installed 32 solar hot water panels on the roof of the White House.

At the panels’ dedication in 1979, Jimmy Carter said:

“This dependence on foreign sources of oil is of great concern to all of us. In the year 2000, this solar water heater behind me, which is being dedicated today, will still be here supplying cheap, efficient energy. A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people.”

Despite the fact that they had been paid for, and were delivering hot water at no additional cost to the taxpayer or with impact on the planet, the solar hot water panels were removed during President Reagan’s administration in 1986 and placed in storage – apparently, another “road not taken”.

Where are those solar panels now? Come take a look…

Official Google Blog
BACK TO THE ENERGY FUTURE
Alice Ryan, Green Energy Project Manager, January 21, 2009

In 1979 President Jimmy Carter installed 32 solar hot water panels on the roof of the White House. Recently a Googler from our Washington D.C. office asked the question, “What ever happened to the Carter panels?” After a little digging, we were able to track down the original panels to Unity College, an environmental college in Maine, and bring one of them back to Washington D.C.

So what ever happened to the panels? It turns out that during President Reagan’s administration the solar hot water panels were removed from the White House in 1986 and placed in storage. 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.

At the panels’ dedication in 1979, Jimmy Carter stated:

“This dependence on foreign sources of oil is of great concern to all of us. In the year 2000, this solar water heater behind me, which is being dedicated today, will still be here supplying cheap, efficient energy. A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people.” (To watch video of the dedication, check out this trailer for a movie about the panels).

As we welcome our new U.S. president to office this week, we wanted to share this piece of this history with you. Google is committed to a clean energy future and we hope that you will join us in supporting the creation and adoption of renewable energy technology — what could still be one of the greatest and most exciting adventures for all of us.

Check out these photos of the panels at Unity College and at Google’s Washington DC office.

Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel
INAUGURATION
Scott Monroe, January 18, 2009

Unity, Google collaborate for ‘green’ display

Thanks to Unity College, one of the original solar panels former President Jimmy Carter put up on the White House has returned home – almost.

The solar panel is on display in the lobby of the Washington, D.C., headquarters of Google, in time for the presidential inauguration Tuesday of Barack Obama. Unity College has had the original 32 Carter solar panels since 1991.

The environmental college and the Internet search-engine company reached a loan agreement to transport the solar panel to highlight the importance of alternative-energy sources for the United States and the possibility of greater support for them under the Obama administration.

“It’s an exciting journey for the panel. It’s about the green economy,” said Rob Constantine, the college’s vice president for advancement. “We want to demonstrate that Maine is at the forefront of that as we talk of real-world, sustainable-energy solutions.”

As part of his economic-stimulus plan, Obama proposes to double the output of alternative energy over the next three years. The Obama administration also has called for 10 percent of the country’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025.

Coinciding with the solar panel’s arrival is a “green ball,” to be hosted by former Vice President Al Gore on Monday and sponsored in part by Google, welcoming President Obama and his wife, Michelle, and other dignitaries. Mitchell Thomashow, president of Unity College, plans to attend the ball.

Google will tell the story of Unity College and the former White House solar panels, college officials said.

In June 1979, Carter proposed a “new solar strategy” to “move our nation toward true energy security and abundant, readily available energy supplies,” according to the Jimmy Carter Library & Museum in Atlanta, Ga. To set an example – and establish a prominent symbol – for the country, Carter had solar panels installed on the roof of the White House West Wing to heat water for the staff mess and other areas.

At the time, Carter warned, “a generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people; harnessing the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil.”

President Ronald Reagan took the solar panels down in 1986 when the White House roof was repaired.

Flash forward 20 years, when Swiss directors Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller started making a documentary film about the panels as a lead-in to exploring American oil dependency and alternative-energy sources.

In the film, “A Road Not Taken,” the two directors – joined by two Unity College students, Sara Trunzo and Jason Reynolds – load two panels into the back of the students’ pickup truck (modified to run on vegetable-oil diesel) and deliver the panels to the Jimmy Carter Library & Museum in Atlanta, where they remain on display. The film debuted last July at the Maine International Film Festival in Waterville.

Trunzo, a 2008 graduate who is now the college’s community-market coordinator, said the latest journey of a Carter solar panel is “really exciting and not that surprising.”

“I feel like there’s a lot of serendipitous occurrences around the solar panels. It’s been a really great tool, because it gets you excited not just about alternative energy, but about American history as well,” Trunzo said.

Recent news coverage of the documentary film caught the attention of many Internet blogs and, ultimately, of Google officials, who initiated contact with Unity College about the arrangement, Constantine said. Under their agreement, Google has been loaned the panel for one year.

Google sent a truck to load the panel – it’s 6 feet by 3 feet, 6 inches – and it arrived at the D.C. headquarters on Friday, Constantine said.

“The panels are an important piece of American energy history and policy, and we want to be good stewards of the panels. We want to make sure whoever is using them represents what they represent,” Constantine said.

Google spokesman Jamie Yood said his company has invested in alternative energy projects, such as spending $4.5 million to help companies develop renewable energy that costs less than coal and investing millions of dollars in developing plug-in electric vehicles that get 90 miles a gallon.

Yood said Google officials are thrilled to receive the solar panel to highlight the importance of future energy solutions – and the history behind them.

“It’s a fun way to talk about the story of the panels,” Yood said. “We’re excited about it.”

UPC: 6 34479 99963 5
ISBN: 978-3-033-02868-5
Genre: Documentary
DVD Region Code: No Zone
Running Time: 66 min.
Rating: no rating
Package Type: Hardcover book in slim DVD case size
(192 x 135 x 10 mm, 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.4 “), cellophane wrapped
Pages: 64
Number of discs: 1 DVD-5
Directors: Christina Hemauer | Roman Keller
Original Language: English
Closed Captioned: yes
Subtitles: German, French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese and English
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Audio Format: Dolby stereo
Bonus: 24 min.

PLEASE VISIT OUR U.S. WEB SHOP TO ORDER THE PUBLICATION
 

«It could have been a moon landing.» Die Zeit, July 8, 2010

«After all, it revives a little known piece of American history. Yet, history is not a collection of events that occurred in the past. It is what we remember of those events.» Francois Cellier, The Oil Drum

«A funny, sad, weird, and illuminating film, it is worth a watch.» Jennifer Prediger, Grist Magazine

ORDER IN EUROPE
For European customers we suggest to order the DVD/book directly from Switzerland.

You may not remember this but in 1979, President Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the roof of the White House West Wing.

The panels, which were used to heat water for the staff eating area, were a symbol of a new solar strategy that Carter had said was going to “move our Nation toward true energy security and abundant, readily available, energy supplies.”

But in 1986, President Ronald Reagan removed the solar panels while the White House roof was being repaired. They were never reinstalled.

In 1991, the panels were retrieved from government storage and brought to the environmentally-minded Unity College about an hour southeast of Bangor, Maine. There, with help of Academy Award winning actress Glenn Close, the panels were refurbished and used to heat water in the cafeteria up until 2005. They are still there, although they no longer function.

Swiss directors Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller follow the route the panels took, using them as a backdrop to explore American oil dependency and the lack of political will to pursue alternative energy sources.

In the movie «A Road Not Taken», the filmmakers took two solar panels from Unity, placed them in the back of two students’ 1990 Dodge Ram pick-up truck (which had been retrofitted to run on vegetable oil) and delivered one of them to the Jimmy Carter Library & Museum in Atlanta and the other to the National Museum of American History in Washington.

In 1979, Carter warned, “a generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people – harnessing the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil.”

It turns out Carter’s warning was at least partially correct: two of his solar panels are museum pieces now.

President Jimmy Carter, Jay Hakes, Peter Marbach,
Jason Reynolds, Harry Rubenstein, Jeffrey Stine,
Sara Trunzo and Mick Womersley

Thanks to:

Ed Bourt, Ed und Jared Butler, Makiko und Olaf Breuning,
Luzian Caspar, Maud Châtelet, Michèle Colburn, Rob Constantine, Angela 
Derrer-Dora, 
Mary Anne Fackelman, Doug Fox, William Gavin, Valeria Gemelli, Brigitte und Henri Getaz, Daniel Grünenfelder, Olivier Heitz, Warren Herrlein, Steven Hochman, Fred Hopps, Dominik Huber, Thomas Isler, Susa Katz, Oliver Kielmayer, Martin Kilian, Jason Klimatsas, Nancy Konigsmark, Thomas Krempke, Michael Kupp, Christina Leutwyler, Lisa Lillelund, Patrick Lindenmaier, Donna Little, Bill Lord, Lee Mackenzie, Franco Mares, Petra und Thomas Martignoni, Kevin Mattson, Monica Murphy, Steve Nelson, Cornelia und Christophe Patthey, Andreas Pfister, Michael Pfister, Ben Potter, Gordon Preiss, David Purdy, Peter Regli, Martina Rieder, Alice Ryan und Jamie Yood, Sara Saunders, Luc Schaedler, Marc Schwarz, Werner Schweizer, Walter Shapiro, Willard Sleamaker, Greg Smith, Gordon Stewart, Jeffrey Stine, Daniela Stoffel und Alessandro Delprete, Rafael Sommerhalder, Marilyn und Steven Strong, Tom Strumolo, John Sullivan, Mark Tardif, William Thomas, Mitchell Thomashow, Fred Truniger, Dan Wedderburn, Ruedi Weidmann, Barbara Wiskemann, Emil Wyss, Gary Zane, Sarah Zürcher

and a lot of other lovely people who helped.

With generous support from:

Unity College, Maine; Jimmy Carter Museum & Library, Georgia; Erna und Curt Burgauer Stiftung, Zurich; Stiftung Corymbo, Zurich; Contemporary Art Center Fribourg; Ernst und Olga Gubler-Hablützel Stiftung; Kulturstiftung Winterthur; Patronagefonds für junge KünstlerInnen, Basel;
Solarspar Stiftung, Sissach; Solothurner Filmtage; Katholische Kirche im Kanton Zürich

With friendly support from:
Eppenberger-Media GmbH; Arnold Schaltegger, Präsident der Grünen Wil-Land; Christoph Ammann; Thomas Joseph Donohoe Charitable Trust, Los Angeles, CA

Website: WordPress/Neutica by Allan Cole

Download picture in high resolution

Download picture in high resolution

Download picture in high resolution

Download poster as pdf file

Download press release as pdf file

Early 2009 Google contacted us as they had heard about the story of the Jimmy Carter solar installation – by goggling us. The company had borrowed one of the panels for the inauguration of President Barak Obama.

Even before President Barak Obama was inaugurated, we heard rumors that the administration plans to install a new solar system on the White House.

In summer 2010 Bill McKibben from 350.org basically copied the idea of our road trip and tried to hand over one of the remaining solar panels to the white house.

On October 5, 2010 Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that a new photovoltaic and thermal solar system would be installed on the White House in spring 2011 (we’re still waiting).

Of course we celebrate the decision to put solar back on the White House. It’s a great symbol, but it’s also a reminder for thirty-two lost years and a historical memorial of an administration that tried to achieve leadership regarding a sustainable energy future long time ago.

We might never find out what impact our project had on the decision to put back solar on the White House, but we saw that our constant retelling of the story and our presence on the web since 2006 created a lot of resonance.