President Barack Obama made a pitch for renewable energy, pledging $3.4 in spending to help modernize the nation's power grid.

While touring a field of solar energy panels in Florida Tuesday, the president advocated greater use of certain technologies in order to bring America's power transmission system into the digital age.

"We have a very antiquated (electric grid) system in our country," Carol Browner, director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change, said. "The current system is outdated, it's dilapidated."

The project includes installing smart electric meters in homes and adding thousands of digital transformers and grid sensors.