The White House Embraces Solar Energy Growth

“We’re becoming a global leader in solar,” President Obama said last Friday at a press conference at Walmart in California, emphasizing America’s transition to a clean energy future with solar as a main focus.

“More and more companies like Walmart are realizing that wasting less energy isn’t just good for the planet, it’s good for business, it’s good for the bottom line,” he said.

Walmart currently has more installed solar on site than any other American company and has plans to double its capacity with a goal to produce 7 billion kilowatts of renewable energy by 2020. This will save them $1 billion per year in energy costs, the President said.

Solar, said the President, is also good for job growth and the economy, which is why he announced adding $2 billion more to a $2 billion fund used for energy upgrades at federal buildings and encouraging more companies to sign up for the Better Buildings Initiative, which collectively saved $300 million in energy costs in the past two years.

The President also shared his plan to support training programs at community colleges across the nation that is expected help 50,000 people learn skills specific to the solar industry.

“We know that generating more clean energy, using less dirty energy, and wasting less energy overall can be good for business and the consumer,” said President Obama, adding that previous actions have already proved “there are cost-effective ways to tackle climate change, while creating jobs.”

Referring to the release of the National Climate Assessment early last week, President Obama emphasized that climate change is real and now is the time to act. “Rising sea levels, drought, more wild fires, more severe storms; those are bad for the economy so we can’t afford to wait,” he said.

“As Americans, we don’t look backward. We look forwards,” said President Obama. “We don’t fear the future; we seize it; we shape it. And when it comes to energy, we have a chance to shape that sector that is probably going to have more to do with how well our economy succeeds in just about any other.”

For emphasis he added that more than 300 private and public organizations have committed to expanding the use of solar.

Following an announcement last year, the White House also recently announced its own solar system is officially up and running. The installation, they said, was constructed by Americans with American-made products.