NASCAR to build huge solar plant at Pocono raceway
The only green typically associated with NASCAR is the cubic dollars spent every year by fans on tickets and merchandise and what the automakers spend to support their teams. On the technology side, this is a series that still uses carburetors and only recently switched to unleaded gas. However, NASCAR has decided to take a tentative step into the future.
Over the past weekend while NASCAR was running at Pocono Speedway in Pennsylvania, officials held a ground breaking ceremony for what is expected to be the largest solar power facility at a sports venue in the world. A 25-acre plot across the road from the track will be home to about 40,000 photovoltaic panels by next spring. The plant will be able to supply most of the tracks power needs going forward and significantly reduce operating expenses. The total cost is expected to be about $15-17 million. Now about those fuel injected or hybridized engines...
[Source: New York Times]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Tim 2:06PM (8/03/2009)
Way to go, NASCAR.
Does this count as "carbon credits" that can be traded on Wall Street?
(Wall Street is going to make a FORTUNE from trading cap-n-trade credits. Maybe that's why their Congressional Cronies are pushing it so hard.)
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Dave 2:08PM (8/03/2009)
"The plant will be able to supply most of the tracks power needs going forward and significantly reduce operating expenses."
I would think that the largest electrical load of running the track, like most outdoor sports arenas, is nighttime lighting not only for the track, but for the parking areas.
And that occurs when there is no solar power.
Are they planning huge battery banks also? Or will they be selling power to the grid during the day and buying power back at night?
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Dave 2:11PM (8/03/2009)
"Pocono Raceway officials anticipate generating considerable money each year — in the “seven figures,” Igdalsky said — by selling the energy produced to PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission organization that operates a wholesale electricity market and grid."
I guess I should have read the source article.
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dg 2:21PM (8/03/2009)
What I want to know is, can I get my power from this? I live like 10 miles away from the track.
Travis R 2:39PM (8/03/2009)
Reading the linked article, it doesn't appear as if NASCAR has anything to do with this (other than Mike Lynch commenting on the project). While Pocono does host NASCAR races, this is all being done by the Pocono Raceway, which isn't even owned by NASCAR's sister company, ISC.
Anyway, I just wanted to give credit where credit is due - this is an independent track that has had some tough times in the past, and it's good to see them doing something like this.
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paulwesterberg 2:53PM (8/03/2009)
They should install electrified slots in the racetrack.
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jpm 3:30PM (8/03/2009)
NASCAR is stupid, boring, and wasteful. The only "green" thing they could do that makes sense: cancel NASCAR.
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ChrisM 3:41PM (8/03/2009)
Your comment is stupid, boring, and wasteful.
jpm 3:46PM (8/03/2009)
"NASCAR recently stopped using unleaded" --stupid
The race is a perpetual left hand turn -- boring
Burning loads of gasoline (with global warming on the rise and tyrant nations are being enriched ) -- wasteful and stupid
Need I say more?
ChrisM 4:02PM (8/03/2009)
All your opinion. Some people value things other than minimizing their existence. Maybe some day the goverment will tell NASCAR that it is stupid, boring, and wasteful, and they will force it to shut down. A eviron-fundamentalist can dream, can't he?
jpm 4:07PM (8/03/2009)
One of those three points was my opinion, the "boring" one. The others are facts and are undisputed at this point.
"Some people value things other than minimizing their existence". Yup, it's perfectly OK if everyone drives Hummers, SUVs...etc. Only YOU matter, fuck everybody else.
Brent 4:31PM (8/03/2009)
Jpm you're on my wavelength, the waste of today will be the hardships of tomorrow.
There are very few selfless people like us out there, so we're all pretty much f*ed.
The fact is the world doesn't want the sustainablity it tries to sometimes smile apon.
The fact is it wants the power and fuel industries to keep their momentum. If they wanted sustainablity, there's been a few major power production evolutions and perpetual moment ideas worth investing in that can actually put out more then they put in. I've even came up with 2 perfectly viable infinite power solutions, does anyone want to take my hand and dance? nope, no one is willing to or invest in sustainablity. The world goes around off of upkeep, upkeep of food, upkeep of power, upkeep of materials. Production, Industry, Murder(food), Profits, it's not about right and wrong, about good and evil, it's all about keeping currency circulating, and its this capitalist dream that will end all the worlds dream someday.
jpm 5:43PM (8/03/2009)
"I've even came up with 2 perfectly viable infinite power solutions"
If you're talking about perpetual motion machines, then we're not on same wavelength and will never be. The energy of the sun is perpetual enough.
mister nomer 11:40PM (8/03/2009)
jpm says: "NASCAR is stupid, boring, and wasteful. The only "green" thing they could do that makes sense: cancel NASCAR."
Name me a sport that isn't wasteful. A single charter flight for a sports team consumes almost 7,000 gallons of fuel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737).
The NBA has 30 teams and 82 games in the regular season. The NFL has 32 teams and 16 games, the NHL has 30 teams and 82 games, and MLB has 30 teams and 162 games.
That's a lot of flights.
And before we start talking about canceling wasteful sports, it's important to remember that NASCAR and CART/IRL also provide something that other major sports do not: a training ground for young engineers. Yesterday's racing is paying technological dividends for us today.
I see nothing wrong with being both "pro" green and "pro" racing.
jpm 11:49PM (8/03/2009)
I'm not sure why you cited those others sports... I didn't endorse any one of them.
"Yesterday's racing is paying technological dividends for us today." Can you name some of those dividends?
"it's important to remember that NASCAR and CART/IRL also provide something that other major sports do not: a training ground for young engineers". That's hard to believe. Maybe a training ground for mechanics.
jpm 3:31PM (8/03/2009)
Good job installing a PV plant in the worst part of the country:
http://www.nrel.gov/csp/troughnet/images/map_normal_radiation.gif
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dg 10:30PM (8/03/2009)
Unfortunately, when you're not on the internet, there is this thing called space. This "space" thing is bound by laws of something else called "physics". It's really very complicated, but put simply:
POCONO RACEWAY IS IN PENNSYLVANIA.
What the fuck do you expect them to do, buy land in California and build the plant there and transmit the power back to Pennsylvania?
jpm 10:39PM (8/03/2009)
They are trying to make a green statement. They're saying, "Hey everybody! Look we're green!" The reality is, it's much smarter to spend the money on better insulation for homes and buildings in colder, less sunny climates. There's a little bit of economics and physics for you.
ChrisM 5:02PM (8/03/2009)
JPM, you can be a responsible individual without stepping on the freedoms of others. Not everyone has to, or will, think like you. People should be convinced, not coerced. That's my only point here.
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jpm 6:07PM (8/03/2009)
Sorry for being overly cynical. But how can I not be given the amount of crap that goes on nowadays?
To your comment on stepping on freedoms of others... I've noticed on this site and elsewhere that people are instantly offended when someone tells them how to live/behave/act, eg - "you shouldn't buy an SUV". Well the fact is you do indirectly and invariable affect others' freedoms by using copious amounts of fuel. Or take a noise pollution example. It's perfectly llegal to drive a 120 dB Harley down the street. But what about the low income people that are forced to live on busy streets? Just because an individual has a freedom to do something, doesn't mean it makes sense, is fair, or should be a freedom in the first place.