Legoland Florida runs on renewable energy for Earth Day

Posted | Contributed by Jeff

[Ed. note: The following is an excerpt of a press release. -J]

Legoland Florida and Tampa Electric kicked off a groundbreaking partnership today in a celebratory moment by making the 150-acre theme park run completely on renewable solar energy for the day in celebration of Earth Day – the first theme park to do so in the U.S. The celebration is part of existing and new conservation initiatives, including installations that will educate park guests about solar energy. As part of the partnership, Legoland Florida will also permanently power a section of the park, Imagination Zone, on renewable energy.

Read the entire press release from Legoland Florida.

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Legoland Florida

How does one run a park off solar energy for one day?
Did they truck in solar panels for that one day? Is this like when a company in texas claims zero environmental impact because they pay to plant a bunch trees in colorado?

Last edited by Krafty,

I doubt that they could run the entire park on the output of a 30KW plant, which are mounted on the top of the Imagination Zone. However it can readily handle the demands of that particular area. The public utility gives the customer the option of buying their power from renewable resources. This is available in many areas of the country.

I have always wondered if the utilities actually track how much renewable power they sell versus what is generated. I am assuming that all of the renewable power is already being sold to someone whether that person has signed up for it or not. So if all of the renewable power is already being sold what good does it do for a park to say that it is running on renewables if that power had to be diverted from someone else? Unless additional renewable power was brought online just for this day then no good deed was done by the park.

If the utility is subject to renewable standards, then they track it. If generation is regulated, they would track percentage of energy generated by renewable sources. If the generation side of the business isn't regulated, the regulated side of the utility would track percentage of power purchased that is from renewable sources.

But I don't think the utlilties have the ability to determine what customer receives what energy. So I am not sure that the park's statement has any significance. Best thing they could do may be to pay the unsubsidized cost of the equivalent amount of power they consume on the day for renewable power. But even that is just a windfall to the utility.

It is very difficult to tell which electrons go to which user:)

Unless you label them.

Every year I tell my neighbor that I label the leaves on the trees in my yard so if there are any leaves in either of our yards in the fall that aren't labeled, they are from his trees so he should rake them. Never seems to work. Maybe if I get a new neighbor.

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