Is Renewable Energy Powering NFL Super Bowl XLIII Hopeless?
Have you heard that the NFL will utilize renewable energy to power this year’s Super Bowl on February 1, 2009?
As a matter of fact, the last two Super Bowls did the same. Can you believe Super Bowl XLI back in 2007 was completely powered by renewable energy?
For the last thirteen years the NFL Environmental Program has made an effort to address the environmental impact of the Super Bowl. It all began with recycling trash, donating unused food to charity, and planting trees. The program has expanded and in the last few years has seen the event powered by Alternative Energy with this year’s sources including solar and biomass sources.
According to the Tampa Bay Super Bowl Host Committee, “The objective of the NFL Environmental Program is to evaluate the environmental impacts of Super Bowl activities and then work with the local community to develop and implement cost-effective and sustainable projects to address them.”
One of the initiatives the NFL takes is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
This year the NFL will purchase renewable energy from local supplier TECO. TECO provides power through solar panels in the Tampa Bay area and a biomass facility in Southern Florida.
You see, less energy will be supplied from coal burning and natural gas plants. Those energy sources emit the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is one of the culprits behind global warming because it absorbs the sun’s heat trapping it in the atmosphere.
How Much Renewable Energy is needed and what is the Carbon Dioxide Savings?
By using solar power and biomass there will be a reduction in the amount of carbon dioxide created. In fact, TECO spokesman Rick Morera stated the amount of carbon savings is roughly equivalent to “pulling 20 cars off the road for a year.” That’s more than 310,000 pounds of carbon dioxide.
Stop and think about it: Massive amounts of energy are required to power the bright lights, TV cameras, and jumbotrons at the five day NFL Experience theme park and game day event. Want exact figures? It is estimated 187,000 kilowatt hours will be used, as reported by the St. Petersburg Times in Florida on December 22, 2008.
That’s more than twelve times a typical house uses in one year!
Super Bowl’s Environmental Efforts Insignificant
Preventing 310,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions and utilizing 187,000 kilowatt hours of energy to power the Super Bowl seems like a lot. However, when you step back and look at the big picture it really is insignificant. Truth is, the amount of CO2 emissions and electricity usage occurring globally is huge in comparison.
How much carbon dioxide is really in the atmosphere?
According to a study by the U.S.A.’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the world spewed out 19 billion tons of carbon dioxide in 2007 alone.
Do you know how many pounds that is? A U.S. short ton equals 2000 pounds, so 19 billion tons works out to 38 trillion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. To emphasize my point that is a 38 followed by twelve zeros. Now that’s huge!
38,000,000,000,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide in 2007
VS
310,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions prevented by Super Bowl XLIII
As you can see the value the NFL brings to the environment with renewable energy is not really significant on a global scale. But before getting depressed you should understand this is potentially good for the world over the long run.
Here’s the true value the NFL’s renewable energy powered Super Bowl offers.
You see, the Super Bowl is a huge event, especially in North America. In fact, Nielsen Media Research stated 97.5 million viewers watched the event last year. Any media coverage highlighting renewable energy powering the Super Bowl will bring awareness to the public. Hopefully, this will provide some education about the environmental impact of renewable v.s. non-renewable energy.
More importantly, the NFL is inspiring to many individuals!
Hopefully, this awareness and education will inspire organizations, companies, and fans to follow in the NFL’s footsteps. Just imagine the environmental impact of reduced carbon emissions multiplied hundreds or thousands of times. For example, 200,000 times 310,000 pounds of reduced carbon emissions works out to 62 billion pounds!
So you can see now, there really is a potentially beneficial impact to the NFL’s Environmental Program over the long run.
Thanks for reading and I invite you to leave your thoughts and comments below.
Want More Renewable Energy Information?
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our Renewable Energy RSS feed! (also available by email)
Related posts
Tags: biomass, carbon dioxide, GHG, Global Warming, greenhouse gas, NFL, renewable energy, Solar Power, sports, Super Bowl
June 4th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Hi, good post. I have been woondering about this issue,so thanks for posting. I’ll definitely be coming back to your site.
August 20th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
You make some good points. As you say, whilst the savings are insignificant in a global view, by promoting energy efficiency the Super Bowl are raising awareness of energy efficiency to millions of people.
If a few of those millions of people decide to take some steps towards their own efficiencies - switching off equipment when they’re not using them, turning on dishwashers and washing machines late in the evening rather than during the day, choosing low energy appliances over less efficient models - then we’re starting to make a step in the right direction.
August 28th, 2009 at 1:29 am
Thanks Solar Books (Michael)
True the savings are small but the awareness the event raises is fabulous.
Here in Canada where I live another event, the 2009 Canada Games to be held in Prince Edward Island, is doing something similar. The Canada games mantra this year is reduce, reuse, and recycle.
While the event won’t capture and audience as large as the Superbowl did its nice to see. Hopefully, more events follow this example.
Thanks for your comment
Eric Bonnici