Actually, Reagan had them taken down in a roof resurfacing project because his administration decided to kill research funding into renewable energy sources that the Department of Energy was conducting. Fred Morse, who helped install the original solar panels as the head mechanical engineer of the solar energy program during both administrations, and later worked as the director for the program in the DoE, pointed out to President Reagan they were working.

Reagan's argument:

"The Department of Energy has a multibillion-dollar budget, in excess of $10 billion. It hasn't produced a quart of oil or a lump of coal or anything else in the line of energy."

Evidently, he was not aware that oil and coal are nonrenewable resources... or, for that matter, what the difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources is- let alone what the Department of Energy was trying to study and experiment with in regards to the aforementioned...:nope:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...ar-panel-array