It’s not football. It’s not even puppies. It is the…
Sunday’s game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots is predicted to be a near toss-up. What is guaranteed to win is renewable energy, regardless of the score. The Salt River Project, a local utility, has pledged to purchase enough renewable energy credits to cover 100% of the electricity consumed at Glendale Stadium during the game. Arizona Public Service Company, another utility, will purchase renewable energy credits to offset electricity usage at Super Bowl-affiliated venues in downtown Phoenix, such as the hotels where the teams are staying.
This begs the question: how “renewable” are these teams the other 364 days of the year? We collected solar statistics for each team and their hometowns* to see how they stacked up.
(*We used Boston for comparison’s sake, though the Patriots play for all of New England.)
When it comes to population size, the two cities are roughly identical. But when it comes to solar, it’s not much of a contest. Not only does Boston have more total solar capacity installed (12 MW versus 4 MW), but even the stadium where the Patriots’ play generates more solar electricity: 1 MW compared to 0.8 MW on the Seahawks’ CenturyLink Field.
It’s no surprise that Boston has embraced solar to a greater degree than Seattle given that Boston has more overall solar potential, as measured by the amount of sunlight available for PV generation. On top of that, Boston is number 2 in the United States for having the best conditions for maximizing the return on your solar investment, second only to New York, NY. Seattle comes in at number 42.
It’s your move, Seattle. Can you make your solar game as legendary as your defense? Tune in next year to find out.