Revving up for solar power

LONG POND -- “Go big or go home” isn’t just a mantra for athletes; the venues at which they perform sometimes take that philosophy to heart as well.

In time for its last NASCAR race of the season, the Pocono Raceway announced late last month that it will soon break ground on a 25-acre, three-megawatt solar-power array that should be completed by spring 2010.

The $17 million alternative-energy project will be the largest at any sports facility in the world, according to Brandon Igdalsky, the track’s president.

It also will be the only sports facility in the world, he said, to generate more energy – and from a renewable source – each year than consumed by the raceway and the other operations it owns nearby. Igdalsky said if it’s going to be built, it’s going to be as big as possible.

“It’s the largest that we could do with the Pennsylvania net-metering laws without basically becoming our own” electric utility, he said. “There’s going to be a lot (of power) going back into the grid.”

Much of the motivation for the 40,000-panel array, which will be built in an empty field that is no longer used for parking, came from the scheduled expiration of PPL Electric Utilities’ electricity rate caps on Jan. 1 as part of the state’s decade-long deregulation plan, he said.

Factoring in the expected rate increase, Igdalsky said the panels will save at least $500,000 annually in electricity costs.

Add to that a 30 percent federal tax credit, a potential state grant and the revenue from selling excess energy back to the grid, and the raceway likes its financial position. But also important is the environmental benefit – it’s expected to offset 5,100 tons of carbon dioxide annually – and the psychological benefit.

“There’s definitely a feel-good thing personally, but it’s a feel-good thing for everyone involved in sports in general,” Igdalsky said. “We need to look forward to our future, and we need to kind of repair the mistakes of the past.”

The raceway also considered wind turbines, which would take up less surface area and cost less, but Igdalsky said concerns about local populations of endangered birds canned the idea. “Wind would have been our first choice, but … solar was just the right choice at the right time,” he said.

Because the raceway isn’t continuously active, the array usually will power, beyond the vacation resort and the Blakeslee Inn the raceway owns, about 1,000 homes, Igdalsky said.

Other sports sites use solar energy, including the recent host to the World Games, Taiwan’s National Stadium, which Igdalsky said has a capacity of just more than one megawatt. Then there’s the San Francisco Giants’ home, AT&T Park; Progressive Field, home of the Cleveland Indians; and the Stade de Suisse Wankdorf in Bern, Switzerland.

Though the raceway attempted to hire locally, it settled on the French-owned company enXco to build the array. The same company is building a solar facility for the Long Island Power Authority and is involved in several projects in New Jersey.

Stock-car racing sanctioning body NASCAR is supporting other programs to bolster its environmentalism, including a project to plant 20 acres of trees each year at racetracks to help offset the carbon dioxide emitted by its fossil-fueled race cars.