Solar-Powered Sports Coliseum Gets Net A-Plus

May 31, 2009

Here's an idea for a power plant: the solar-powered sports coliseum. What if you skinned an entire stadium with solar such that it could satisfy its own ginormous appetite for power when filled with spectators, but when idle (which is usually often) its solar panels could still be at work, making and feeding electricity to the grid? Sports facility as power plant. A colossal idea not likely to be done anytime soon; a rich fantasy beyond the pale.

Except that it has been done, in Taiwan. Recently completed to host the 2009 Goodwill Games, the stadium will be able to supply all the juice for its 3,300 lights and two jumbotrons, or local residents when the lights and screens are off.

Solar seldom makes the payback cut, but maybe it just sort of gets tucked into the mega-buck coliseum construction budget. Consider: the new Cowboys football stadium in Texas (which has no solar) seats 80,000 and cost $1,000,000,000. Taiwan's stadium cost $182,000,000 and seats 50,000. Can't say how the math works for these two stadiums on opposite ends of the planet, but in the $818,000,000 difference between the two, couldn't you toss solar into the $1 billion dollar deal like a golden crumb? If solar for the Cowboys Stadium had cost $90 million (half the total price tag for the Taiwan stadium), Cowboys becomes a $1.09 billion project; a meager 0.09 crumb gets tacked onto the end of the thing. 

Maybe solar does find its way into the deal, especially if you consider the inverting perversion of normal costing that happens with big, shiny new stadiums: the more expensive a Cowboys stadium is, the more attractive it becomes, the more the monied flock to it as the place to see and be seen (big sports deals like this seem to defy the laws of gravity that bedraggle developers financing traditional projects). In this trembling economy, the Cowboys don't seem to have trouble finding people willing to pony up the $100,000 to $500,000 a year to lease their suites. Solar can certainly help make the project more fantastic and over-the-top and expensive, while proffering eco-chic, cutting-edge-with-a-social-purpose flair to the See-and-be-Seens.

The solar powered coliseum could be more than a one-off oddity, it could become the de rigueur way to add sports facilities to the community, where the facility is asked to do more than simply entertain us, it is asked to help us tackle some of our bigger challenges.

Photos:  Taiwan National Stadium courtesy Inhabitat; Cowboys Stadium from Wikimedia

Comments

[stomv]

Some numbers:

Total solar generation in USA, 2007: 611,793,000 kWh
Total annual generation of stadium above per year: 1,140,000 kWh

So, that stadium, if built in the USA, would increase our solar capacity by about 0.15%. Doesn't sound like much. Furthermore, the design maximized the amount of surface area for solar cells; many stadiums have less roof space. Let's cut it in half and say an average stadium would contribute 0.08%.

But: there are almost 100 professional major league level sports stadiums in America (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS). That means that professional stadiums could be contributing 8%. Add in some of the bigger college arenas and we could be at 10%.

It's true, it's not likely that the stadiums could be retro-fit to have that sort of solar capacity, but it's also true that, like the Dallas Cowboys, teams are constantly getting new stadiums. Furthermore, sports stadiums tend to be in urban areas, where there is high power demand but less supply, and so solar would result in a major increase in production at the right location, at the right time of the day. Additionally, because of parking lots, few stadiums have to worry about shadows from neighboring buildings.

I've got to say: I really like this idea. Stadiums are uniquely able to install and use solar well. I'd love to see MLB et al add a "solar tax" to tickets to fund the installation of solar cells on it's stadiums.

[Chris Davis]

What's appealing is that stadiums tend to be idle when the sun is at maximum and solar might offer significant returns. The math might be good for a stadium that could sell its peak solar most days at top dollar, since it didn't have to use it to power its own functions.

Not sure how stomv derives the 8 percent professional stadium stat, but in the search for facilities that tend to have some down time, and are thus good candidates to be net plus (energy exporting), consider that places like these might beef up his stats:

NASCAR tracks

Churches

Performing Arts Halls