Solar Demonstrations on Federal Residences

Better Planning and Management Control Needed Gao ID: EMD-78-40 April 14, 1978

Pursuant to the Solar Heating and Cooling Demonstration Act of 1974, the former Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) provided the Department of Defense (DOD) with $3.1 million in funding authority for two solar demonstration projects on federal residences.

The first solar demonstration project, after expenditures of $719,000 and an 18 month schedule slippage, was never completed because the solar systems to be used in the project were overdesigned. This prevented the project from reaching its cost objectives. Consequently, DOD sought and obtained ERDA approval to terminate the project and redirect the remaining funds to other DOD solar efforts which were not consistent with the role given DOD under the act. This situation could have been avoided had ERDA and DOD developed a detailed program plan before initiating the project and worked together to implement an effective monitoring system.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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