Believed to be first array to help power a National Historical District Building and a Texas Hall of Fame Non-Profit Organization
FORT WORTH –Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame and Austin-based Green Mountain Energy Company today announced plans for a solar array on the Fort Worth landmark located in the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District. Green Mountain presented Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame with a check for $50,000 to fund the new 19.44 kilowatt (kW) solar array.
The solar power system, which is being installed on Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame’s roof, is believed to be the first one to help power a Hall of Fame Non-Profit Museum in Texas and possibly the first in the United States. The array will help reduce the building’s energy use and carbon footprint, as well as educate museum visitors about the benefits of solar energy. Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame is located in the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District at 128 East Exchange, Historic Barn A.
“Green Mountain Energy Company is especially pleased and proud to donate the solar array to Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame, a Texas institution,” said Paul Markovich, President, Residential Services, Green Mountain Energy Company. “Green Mountain has been serving customers throughout the Forth Worth metropolitan-area since 2002. Donating solar arrays like this one helps us give back to the communities where our customers live, work, shop and play, while supporting our mission to change the way power is made.”
Green Mountain funded Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame’s first solar array through its Big Texas Sun Club®, a unique program in which Green Mountain’s Texas customers can choose to support solar energy installations in Texas by contributing an additional $5 on their monthly Green Mountain Energy® electricity bill (for information, visit https://www.greenmountainenergysunclub.com/about/). This will be the 26th solar project built in Texas thanks to the Big Texas Sun Club. With this installation, Green Mountain’s Big Texas Sun Club will be responsible for creating over 270 kW of new solar energy capacity in Texas since 2002.
“We are so excited to be selected as a recipient for this grant. With our new solar panels, we now have a unique exhibit that not only shows our 100-year-old building has gone green, but complements our Sterquell Wagon Collection [of lifestyle wagons] which we consider the original mode of green transportation,” said Jami Hoffman, executive director of Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame. “If our historic building can go green – then anyone can.”
The Green Mountain Energy® Solar at Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame is expected to produce more than 25,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per year by converting sunlight into pollution-free electricity. It will be built with 72 large solar panels and is expected to offset over 33,000 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) each year. That’s the equivalent to nearly 10,000 houses turning off all of their lights for a day, or of not driving more than 36,000 miles annually- like avoiding almost 200 road trips from Fort Worth to Austin! Additionally, the solar power system is expected to save the Museum about $180,000 in energy costs over its 30-year lifetime.1
An informative sign about the array and information about solar energy will be placed inside the Hall of Fame to help educate patrons on solar energy and its importance. A monitoring web site will also be linked to the array to display real-time energy output data that anyone with Internet access can view.
Construction on the solar array is expected to be completed early in 2011. The array is being installed by Alternative Power Solutions (APS). This is APS’ 4th solar installation for Green Mountain on behalf of the Big Texas Sun Club.
About the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame
Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame honors Texas men and women who have excelled in the sport and business of rodeo and the western lifestyle. Now honoring over 100, a few of our Inductees include: Nolan Ryan, Tommy Lee Jones, Carol Rose, Quail Dobbs, Trevor Brazile, Don Edwards, Buster &Sheila Welch, George Strait, Lane Frost, Ty Murray, Barry Corbin, Red Steagall, Tuff Hedeman, J.J. Hampton (17-time PWRA World Champion), Charmayne James, and Don Gay (8-time PRCA World Champion Bull Rider)! Each of our Inductees has their own individual booth which contains personal memorabilia for our guests to view. In addition to the displays dedicated to Inductees, the museum includes the Sterquell Wagon Collection, The John Justin Trail of Fame and Chisholm Trail Exhibit. The museum also houses The Zigrang Bit Collection, Amon G. Carter’s 1933 Cadillac, The Adventures of the Cowboy Trail (a child’s four-station exploratorium), The Jersey Lilly Old-Tyme Photo Parlor and a wonderful western Gift Shop.
About Green Mountain Energy Company
Green Mountain, the nation’s leading competitive retail provider of cleaner energy and carbon offset solutions, was founded in 1997 “to change the way power is made.” The company is the longest serving green power marketer in the U.S. Green Mountain offers consumers and businesses the choice of clean electricity products from renewable sources, such as wind, as well as a variety of carbon offset products. Green Mountain customers have collectively helped avoid over 11.3 billion pounds of CO2 emissions. As a wholly owned subsidiary of NRG Energy, Green Mountain is backed by one of the nation’s largest renewable power producers. For more information, visit GreenMountain.com
1 Estimated savings calculated by APS based on assumed current electricity price of $0.009 per kWh and annual inflation rate of 7% over the estimated 30 year useful life of the facility.
