NASCAR Goes Green with Racing Facility

NASCAR goes green with racing facility

NASCAR has become the unlikely builder of one of America’s largest alternative energy installation.

The Pennsylvania 500 held yesterday made Pocono Raceway the largest facility in the world using solar power using almost 40,000 solar panels.

Officials in Long Pond, Pennsylvania inaugurated the solar facility’s construction a year ago, with the hopes of eventually providing the Pocono Mountain area with 3 megawatts of power supply. The amount of power is enough to run the Pocono Raceway, as well as 1,000 homes in the area.

NASCAR officials plan to apply this effort to other venues in the future.

“We encourage other tracks and sponsors to follow this lead in making sustainable programs and renewable energy a continued priority for the sport,” said NASCAR chief Brian France in a statement.

The whole solar power array was constructed in a 25-acre lot and cost more than $15 million. It just started full operation two months ago. Some of the cost was minimized due to a general reduction in the prices of solar cells.

“We needed a way – how can we save the most money on our power usage?” Raceway president Brandon Igdalsky told the New York Times last year. “It’s good for us. It’s good for the environment. It’s good for the community.”

And now that plan has come to fruition, with the facility becoming not only the world’s largest solar-powered sports complex, but also the biggest of its kind in Pennsylvania.

The facility will maximize energy production in a few weeks, and NASCAR officials estimate that they will recoup the cost within five years.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Tuesday August 03 2010, 11:19 AM EST. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0