Will the Obama White House Go Solar?

(Photo mashup courtesy of Treehugger.com)

It’s only been three days since Democrat Barack Obama locked up votes to become the 44th president of the U.S. Now comes the fun part: honoring your promises. Not that Obama promised to put solar panels on the White House, but he has advocated for a new attitude when it comes to energy.

So, Treehugger.com has already pitched President-elect Obama - in LOLcats style (”I can has cheezburger”) — to re-install solar panels on the White House. Evidently, 39th president Jimmy Carter installed a set of solar panels during his tenure in 1979 — ironically, during a similar energy crisis — and Ronald Reagan removed them in 1986 to have work done to the roof.

The panels on the White House would certainly set an example of what we need to do as a country, but what is our own individual cost if we wanted our homes to go solar? Coolerplanet.com put together a “Solar Power Rating” map of how your state rates in terms of solar incentives. And, here’s a quick little calculator to estimate how much a solar panel system would cost.