Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Mayor: New power-producing solar carports ‘big deal’ for Las Vegas

City carports going green as solar generators as part of sustainability effort

Solar carports

Dave Toplikar

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman gets a demonstration of how a thin film solar panel generates electricity. The mayor took part in Thursday’s ceremony unveiling the new solar panels installed atop carports at the city’s Stupak Community Center. Other solar carports have been built at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum and at Fire Station No. 10 as part of the city’s sustainability efforts.

Solar carports

Las Vegas City Councilman Steve Ross looks over an all-electric Tesla Roadster Sport that was brought by Tesla Motors to the opening of the solar carports at the Stupak Community Center, 521 Bonanza, Dec. 9, 2010. Launch slideshow »

Map of Stupak Community Center

Stupak Community Center

300 W Boston Avenue, Las Vegas

Almost on cue, the sun broke through a heavy bank of clouds Thursday as Las Vegas city officials opened one of the city's three new electricity-generating solar carport projects.

"This is a big deal," Mayor Oscar Goodman told the gathering, "because Las Vegas is just ideally suited, because of our climate, where the sun shines virtually every single day."

Goodman pointed out that even with clouds that were rolling over the Stupak Community Center, 251 Boston Ave., the new solar panels attached to the center's carport roofs were generating electricity.

"And that's exciting," Goodman said. "Because that will make America independent of sources of energy that perhaps are inconsistent with what our future should hold."

Made in America

Although Goodman was beaming then, a few minutes earlier the mayor had stormily threatened to pull the plug on the ribbon-cutting event.

"When we were looking at a sample, it indicated that the sample had been assembled in Mexico," Goodman explained to the gathering. "And I felt that was totally unacceptable as far as our sustainability efforts in the United States, particularly when we're getting money from the Recovery Act."

However, he found out a few minutes later the solar panel sample they had showed him was just for demonstration purposes and not part of the project.

The panels installed on the carports "are American made, American assembled and purely American," the mayor said.

"That's important to me, because in this day and age, so many people, particularly in our community, are out of work," Goodman said.

$400,000 rebate from NV Energy

Also at the ribbon-cutting were NV Energy officials, who presented the city with a large ceremonial SolarGenerations rebate check of $414,250.

Those funds will be used to help offset installation costs of the Stupak Center carports and electricity-generating solar carports at The Las Vegas Natural History Museum, 900 N. Las Vegas Blvd., and at Fire Station No. 10, at 1501 S. Martin L. King Blvd.

More than $1.2 million of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant Recovery Act funding was used for the projects.

The three carports will generate about 250,000 kilowatt-hours of power, providing as estimated $28,000 a year in energy savings.

Electric car charging port

The event also featured representatives from Tesla Motors, who had driven the mayor down the Las Vegas Strip in a green, open-top all-electric Tesla Roadster Sport.

"Apparently you can go 275 miles without having to recharge. And that will take you to Barstow and you'll be able to catch the Desert Express home," Goodman said, getting laughs.

Ecotality, a clean electric transportation and technologies company, was also at the event, and its representative showed how electric cars such as the Tesla Roadster can be recharged in a few hours at the carport.

"Sustainability is one of the city's key priorities," City Manager Betsy Fretwell said as she kicked off the event.

Fretwell said the three solar carport projects are part of a citywide solar-covered parking plan that, when completed, is expected to generate enough electricity to power about 260 homes and reduce the city's carbon footprint by 200 metric tons.

Ecotality North America installed a charging station at the the carports, which can be used to charge the batteries of the Tesla Roadster and other electric vehicles.

"It just goes to show that sustainability is a concept that continues to grow in our community — and it's fantastic," Fretwell said.

Goodman said the city has been recognized internationally for having a city vehicular fleet that is more than 90 percent fueled by alternative energy. Also, the city's community center at Centennial Hills is "green-compliant," he said.

"We are really at the forefront, or the cutting edge, even though it sounds trite or cliché, for sustainability in this community," Goodman said.

Creating a 'buzz'

Goodman and Fretwell also commended Tom Perrigo, the city's deputy director of administrative services, who oversees the city's sustainability projects. Goodman called him "The Green Man."

After the ceremony, Perrigo said the solar panels on the roof produce direct electric current, which is then converted to alternating current and sent into the power grid.

He said the carport at the Stupak Community Center will produce about 30 percent of the facility's energy needs.

The public can check a monitor in the community center's lobby that shows how much electricity is being generated. For example, the panels were activated late Wednesday afternoon, just before sundown. And during the few minutes of daylight, they had produced 59 cents of electricity.

"When we planned out the whole program, we wanted to put in the most efficient panels that would generate the most energy for these spots," Perrigo said. "But we also wanted to promote it to show the community there are other options out there."

There are two major kinds of solar panels. One is glass, polycrystalline or monocrystalline solar panels. The other is thin film solar panels, which are being used at the carports.

"With the glass, of course, it's glass. So if kids are throwing rocks, or whatever, they're a little susceptible to damage and they're quite expensive," Perrigo said. "These, you can throw a rock on it and it doesn't damage it."

He said the glass solar panels are being used at more secure facilities, such as the fire station and at the city vehicle service yards. The thin film panels are being used at community centers and parks.

"You could stick this on any carport," he said. "Part of this is to sort of get it out in the community and get people to see it and understand it."

He said the solar carport projects are also about building momentum for a clean energy economy — and bring solar manufacturers here.

"We're helping to create that buzz," Perrigo said, "that Las Vegas is the place to be if you want to manufacture film and be part of a community that's really moving forward with renewable energy and solar."

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