The Kansas City Royals baseball team is getting greener with the largest in-stadium solar array generating electricity in Major League Baseball.
The 160 solar panels, which have been installed and tested, are expected to produce 36,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, which is enough to power for four homes. That won’t be enough to meet all the stadium’s electricity needs but should provide most if not all of a crucial element of the game.
“Your beer is going to be cooled by the sun,” said Chuck Caisley, a spokesman for Kansas City Power & Light.
Kind of cool. And the article addresses what was my first thought when I started reading it and saw that, unlike some other ballparks, the Royals’ solar array is inside the ballpark: how on Earth do you keep those panels from not reflecting onto the field and distracting everyone.
Of course as more and more teams start adding solar panels to their parks, someone is going to have to go all “Moneyball” on us and exploit some inefficiencies here. Maybe the A’s or the Rays or someone to go all geothermal on us soon. Maybe the Phillies will install wind turbines to harness the breezes from Ryan Howard’s mighty hacks.
The future is awesome.
