Cincinnati Zoo Solar Parking Lot Goes Live

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In relation to solar energy, there are many locations to place it. There are rooftops, carports, outbuildings and garages, vacant tons, and land that’s not getting used (no less than by people) exterior of the cities. Positive, you might use any of those locations, however the additional you go from the place the facility goes for use, the dearer it’s to get the facility from A to B. Transmission strains, utility coordination, and all of that’s removed from low cost.

Plus, simply because people aren’t utilizing land doesn’t imply it isn’t getting used! The environmental price of utilizing extra land, displacing extra animals and vegetation, disrupting ecosystems, and such all provides up. So, it makes heaps of sense to construct photo voltaic arrays on land that’s already been disrupted by folks. However, the land that’s already being utilized by folks is…already being utilized by folks. So, we have to discover present makes use of of land that depart room for a second use — to kill two birds with one stone, so to talk.

The Cincinnati Zoo discovered a approach to do precisely this, however as an alternative of solely killing two birds with one stone (proverbially talking, after all), they discovered a approach to do three issues on the similar time: present solar energy, put shade over automobiles, and nonetheless depart room for automobiles to do what they already did there: park. The zoo’s PR folks say that the array will present sufficient energy for as much as 330 properties yearly and scale back the realm’s carbon emissions by nearly 1300 metric tons of CO2 equal per 12 months.

“We partnered with Melink Solar in 2011 to install a 1.56 MW solar array over our Vine St. parking lot,” stated Mark Fisher, Cincinnati Zoo’s VP of services and sustainability. “This array is roughly the same size but produces about twice the power due to advances in solar panel technology. With both arrays online, about 2/3 of the electricity for the entire campus is coming from our parking lots.”

It’s additionally going to supply vital price financial savings for the zoo. As you may think about, a spot as massive as a zoo, with all the buildings, lights, swimming pools, pumps, heaters, air conditioners, and all the things else, can rack up a reasonably large energy invoice. The array alone will save the zoo about $300,000 yearly.

One other factor the zoo is happy about is setting an instance in the neighborhood. Many individuals go to the zoo daily, week, month, and 12 months. Many extra folks drive by the zoo on Euclid Avenue and different close by streets.

“Sharing our success is also important to us,” stated Fisher.  “We’re showing people how it can be done, and they see that every time they drive by the Zoo or park here, and also making it happen for some members of our community.”

The photo voltaic firm that put the array in can be enthusiastic about this chance: “We love that the Zoo’s solar arrays are very visible to the community and that they’re sharing a lot of the solar love with communities in need as well,” stated Monica Niehaus, enterprise improvement supervisor for Melink Photo voltaic.

A part of what Niehaus is referring to is that there have been some additional photo voltaic panels on the finish of the undertaking, and these have been donated to a undertaking that places them elsewhere in Cincinnati. Most lately, panels from the undertaking have been put in at Lydia’s Home, and one other batch is headed to Horses on the Hill later this fall.

Featured picture by the Cincinnati Zoo.