solar panels energizing the super bowl
The Super Bowl is one of the most energy intensive events in the USA, since an estimated one trillion people this year will be watching the Arizona Cardinals take on the Pittsburgh Steelers for NFL supremacy. All the lights, sound and endless electronic equipment required to drive the NFL experience week and the Super Bowl in Tampa Bay, FL will consume 187,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electric power according to Tampa Electric, the local utility supplying electricity for the Super Bowl.
This year, together the NFL and Tampa Electric decided to “go green” in terms of acquiring their power by generating the power needed to fuel the Super Bowl through renewable resources such as solar, wind and even bio-trash to electricity. The NFL paid Tampa Electric a premium per kWh of clean electricity to offset their consumption through renewable energy resources. The amount of clean electricity the NFL used this is comparable to taking 20 cars of the road for one year, seems very insignificant wouldn’t you agree?
Well, I’m not going to criticize the NFL, at least this year a small fraction of their power is coming from clean energy, hopefully next year the NFL offsets even more. I suppose this is a step in the right direction, I hope they make an announcement during the game to raise awareness that the electricity powering the Super Bowl is coming from renewable energy.
