Every Sunday, the Philadelphia Eagles bring green power to
Lincoln Financial Field with a crushing defense and a youthful, high-powered offense. But a new proposal is set to bring green power off the field and spread it to the rest of the Linc. On Nov. 18, the Philadelphia Eagles announced plans to create a $30 million, on-site energy generation system complete with wind turbines and solar panels that will instantly transfer 15-20 percent of the Linc's output to renewable energy, while an on-site co-generation power plant will take care of the rest.Through a partnership with Orlando, Fla. firm
Solar Blue, Lincoln Financial Field becomes the world's first major sports stadium to convert to self-generated renewable energy.
"Pennsylvania has been a regulated state with rate caps and those rate caps are expected to expire at the end of this year," says Lincoln Financial Field COO Don Smolenski. "The information we were getting was that electricity costs were going to go up 30-40 percent. With electricity being our biggest line item for the stadium, we started exploring our options."
The installation, with an expected completion date of September 2011, contains 80 spiral-shaped wind turbines along the roof of the structure, affixes 2,500 solar panels to the facade and brings an on-site, co-generation power plant to the parking lot. The plant, which will handle the majority of the energy load, runs on biodiesel or natural gas. SolarBlue will own and operate the stadium's power system for the
next 20 years, selling the power to the Eagles at a fixed rate.
The proposal is expected to save the team an estimated $60 million in energy costs.
"The vertical-shaped turbines appealed to us aesthetically and are less noisy than traditional turbines," says Smolenski. "Not only is it good for our electricity rates, we feel these turbines really enhance the look of the stadium."
Source: Don Smolenski, Lincoln Financial Field
Writer: John Steele