Yesterday, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on the Yosemite National Park border to dedicate the El Portal Photovoltaic Project. What exactly is that? The project is a 672-kilowatt solar panel system, made up of 2,800 solar panels and will produce up to 800,000 kilowatt hours per year.
Now the largest photovoltaic grid in the Pacific West Region, and the largest grid owned and operated by the NPS, the El Portal solar panels will provide enough energy to the park to reduce their energy purchases from the main grid by 12 percent. That adds up to about $50,000 per year in savings. With the Park Service facing budget cut after budget cut, any way to save on the costs to maintain the park are being explored.
In addition to the savings every year, the park will also receive a $700,000 energy rebate from Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) spread out over the next five years. The project cost $5.8 million, with the funds coming from the $754 million that is earmarked for the NPS in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Park Superintendent DonNeubacher said, “The collaborative effort to design and build this system has come to fruition and we are extremely proud of the results. We are committed to being a leader in renewable energy and this project exemplifies our efforts.”
Located on the western edge of the park, near Highway 140, the solar panel grid is part of a network of park buildings, including park offices, a vehicle maintenance facility, and warehouse, among others. Solar panels are on every roof of every building, and that area was chosen because of the amount of direct sunlight it receives.
Read the official press release here.
I’m all for the use of renewable energy. Just about anywhere and anytime. Though, the math on this doesn’t seem to add up.
They save 50k a year, plus off set the cost for install by 700k, of a project that costs 5.8 million. I think the only way this pays off is if there are no problems with the panels, and they last for 90 years without needing to be replaced. Seems unlikely the savings will be realized.
We really need to figure out how to do renewable energy cheaper. Bloom Box, maybe?
I think that the reason solar or wind appears to be so expensive is that the Congress, especially the Repukes have subsidized the fossil fuel industry in the billion dollar range making it artificially “cheap.” If you look at the costs from cradle to grave, our health as well as the planet is benefited by going solar.
Maybe after vast numbers of people are hurt from hydraulic fracking for natural gas from methane coal beds, then solar will appear much more feasible to them. Poisoned water vs a clean environment. I’d rather move to where the environment is clean and pollution and corruption is dead than live where we are in South Louisiana!
Long before this project starts paying for itself, we will have come up with a much better source of energy. Such a silly waste of time and money.
At least something good has come from the Obama Administration.
I just wish the USDA had listened to the 500,000 people who put comments into the record against genetically modified agriculture instead of ignoring us for Monsanto. And, they allowed organic to become contaminated.
I’m all for solar and wind power, just cannot buck the tide of the brain dead Louisiana delegation who only think we need toxic fossil fuels. It’s tough being an activist in the Red State. But, thankfully Yosemite is doing well to not only conserve energy and reduce its carbon foot print, but to be more sustainable against budget cutting extremists!
Good work NPS!!!!