Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame and Green Mountain Energy Company “Flip Switch” for Museum’s New Solar Array – and First for Stockyards

Local dignitaries attend today’s dedication for first solar system to help power a National Historical District Building and Texas Hall of Fame non-profit organization

 

 

 

FORT WORTH, TEXAS — The Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame is now being powered partly by the sun, thanks to Green Mountain Energy Company and its customers. Green Mountain, Texas’ first competitive retail electric provider to offer cleaner energy, donated $50,000 to the Fort Worth landmark – through its Big Texas Sun Club® - to fund the 19.44 kilowatt (kW) solar power system. The solar array is the first in the Fort Worth Stockyards and believed to be the first for a Hall of Fame non-profit museum in Texas.

 

The solar photovoltaic (PV) system, which was installed on Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame’s roof, will help reduce the building’s energy use and carbon footprint, as well as educate people visiting the museum about the benefits of solar energy.

 

Solar Dedication

 

U.S. Congresswoman Kay Granger (District 12) and Fort Worth Mayor Pro Tem, Danny Scarth joined Green Mountain’s Super Earth mascot, Fort Worth City Council members, Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame officials, Green Mountain officials and Hickman Companies representatives to “flip the switch” of the solar array today during a ceremonial dedication.  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 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.”

 

“We are excited to be able to work with Green Mountain on this project and hope it is just the beginning for solar energy in the Historic Fort Worth Stockyards,” said John Bills, Hickman Companies, Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer. The Hickman’s were the original owners of the Hall of Fame exhibits which they donated to the museum.

 

“Who would have ever guessed a near 100-year-old building could use the sun’s rays to operate more economically,” said Jami Hoffman, executive director of Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame. “This solar-array panel will complement our original green-energy transportation –The Sterquell Wagon Collection. I will now add a couple of words to Amon G. Carter’s phrase: ‘Fort Worth, it’s where the West begins…to go green!’”

 

 

Big Texas Sun Club

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 was 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.

 

The mission of the Big Texas Sun Club is to fund, build and promote solar power in Texas while assisting organizations with a socially responsible focus to reduce their environmental footprint.

 

Green Mountain Energy® Solar at Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame

The solar array is expected to produce more than 25,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per year by converting sunlight into pollution-free electricity. It was 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 display about the array and renewable 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.

 

The solar was installed by Alternative Power Solutions (APS). This was APS’ 4th solar installation for Green Mountain on behalf of the Big Texas Sun Club.

 

 

About 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. For more information, visit: texascowboyhalloffame.org.

 

 

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’s largest customer is the “world’s most famous office building,” the Empire State Building in New York City. 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.

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