Fort Worth Zoo installs 4,000-square-foot solar panel to power facility

by Nicole Balderas of North Texas Daily

With extra money saved on electricity, the zoo will have more left to give to local and international conservation efforts.

Texas is continually making headway in the amount of solar energy used, most recently with the September installation of a 4,000-square-foot solar array system powering several buildings at the Fort Worth Zoo.

The new 47.5-kilowatt solar panel system was installed on the roof of the zoo’s administration building and is expected to produce more than 93,000 kilowatt-hours of clean electricity per year, saving around $300,000 over the system’s 30-year lifetime.

The Green Mountain Energy Sun Club donated $140,000 to the zoo to pay for the solar panel system as part of its annual effort to give back to nonprofit organizations.

“Sunshine is biggest in Texas; the capacity for solar energy in Texas is great,” said Tony Napolillo, program manager for Green Mountain Energy Sun Club. “Where we fall behind is the incentives in Texas aren’t as great as other states. Solar power is very expensive, so consequently nonprofits and other groups have a hard time affording it.”

The current U.S. leader in solar energy is California, with $3.3 billion spent on a 10-year program meant to help the state maintain its number-one position, according to cleantechnica.com.

“The mission of the Green Mountain Energy Sun Club is to build and promote solar energy around the state and country and to help nonprofits reduce their environmental footprint,” Napolillo said.

The company has donated 30 solar installations around the Texas area with the help of electricity provider Encore, which provides grants and rebates to those who install solar panels in their homes.

“Thanks to them, a lot of these donations have been bigger,” Napolillo said. “They needed to know that [GMESC] was going to build before they gave the funds, and I think that has helped the cost of solar go down and become more cost-effective.”

With extra money saved on electricity, the zoo will have more left to give to local and international conservation efforts, said Remekca Owens, public relations manager for the Fort Worth Zoo. The zoo helps with conservation efforts in 34 countries, including the International Elephant Foundation and the Turtle Survival Alliance.

Texas currently leads the nation in non-hydro renewable energy, the majority of which comes from the state’s 9,410 MW of wind capacity, according to nrel.gov, but many believe solar power is nearing a breakthrough.

In a statement from the 2011 Solar Power International conference, Rhone Resch, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, said Texas has the potential to be a massive solar market.

“To put it into perspective, the sunshine that falls on Texas each month has more energy than all of the oil that has ever been pumped out of this state,” Resch said. “If you think oil made Texas great, just wait till you see what they do with solar.”

So far, Texas legislation has put a number on the amount of environmentally friendly energy to be produced, but no restrictions have been set on the sources that it must come from, said Pam Groce, head of Innovative Energy Demonstration Program for the State Energy Conservation Office.

“When I first got into this business I went to a conference, and someone said in five years the cost of solar will come down and we’ll see it everywhere,” Groce said. “That was 15 years ago. But I think we’re finally at that place where we’re seeing it more.”