When guests drive up to the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, they take instant notice that this is no ordinary attraction. They park their cars underneath a canopy of 6,400 solar panels, covering four acres that can make one wonder, “Am I at a zoo powered by solar energy or at a solar array that just happens to have a zoo?”
“It’s become quite a sight in its own right,” says Mark Fisher, senior director of facilities, planning, and sustainability for the zoo. “You don’t realize how big it is until you’re beneath it.”
The zoo’s solar array may not be Ohio’s largest—an 80-acre solar farm can be found in Upper Sandusky—but it has certainly drawn attention to the zoo, and it may be the largest project of its kind operating as an attraction. The panels sit on more than 100 metal frames that reach up to 18 feet high, with focus toward the south. The system was designed to take greatest advantage of the sun’s energy. Since the panels were implemented in April, they have produced about 20 percent of the power needed for the zoo. “It used to be that people would drive up and immediately head toward the entrance gate. Now they look up and want to learn more about the solar panels,” says Fisher.
The Cincinnati Zoo’s project has been drawing attention not just because of its size, but also its creative use of space. Using the zoo’s parking lot for the panels solves two problems simultaneously. It turns a one-use area into a multi-use area, and it provides an added benefit for guests in summer: shade that keeps their cars out of the baking sun while they enjoy visiting the exhibits.
“Typically, solar energy projects have been small and designed to kind of show what will be available in the future,” says Fisher. “But the future is now; it’s here. We went into this project not just because it was green and the right thing to do; it was going to save us money.”
Lower Electricity and Gas Bills
Cost saving was also the objective at the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison, Wisconsin, which regularly faced winter heating bills of $1,200 per month in its popular children’s zoo barn. “Working with our utility, Madison Gas & Electric, we added solar water heating and geothermal heating for the structure, which have dropped our winter bills down to $50 per month,” says Jim Hubing, the zoo’s director.
Five years ago the utility installed a pink solar panel in the flamingo exhibit at the Henry Vilas Zoo. The panel connects to the power company’s grid, and signage points out how the panel generates a quarter of the power used by the average home. Interest in the partnership drove the zoo to seek a grant to help pay for the zoo barn project as well as a solar heating program in the herpetarium.
 “It’s all a very logical arrangement,” says Hubing. “Part of the mission of all zoos is to encourage conservation, and what better way is there to showcase energy conservation efforts than to let people see how these systems work up close. In our barn, we have a monitor that shows the temperature of the collector outside, and the temperature of the water. In the winter, you can see why the goats can sleep on the warm floor because of the solar and geothermal heating. The children get the concept. We’re practicing what we preach.”
Although there have been great advances in solar technology in recent years, a self-sustaining system that would allow a zoo or aquarium to be fully “off the grid” is probably still in the future. “Your electrical needs are so great, it’s not like a large home or even a farm,” says Hubing. “What we hope for now is that these systems can take a big enough bite out of our bills to make a difference.”
Because most zoos are nonprofit, they are eligible for grants and/or tax credits to help shoulder the expensive startup costs required for a solar project. They also generally partner with a solar company or utility that is hoping the visibility of the project will add to its profile.
For a large project such as the one at the Cincinnati Zoo, working out the financing can be just as daunting as the engineering issues. The Cincinnati project was put together through a series of tax credits and profits gained from selling the energy the system delivers.
The trend of matching zoos with solar energy is also active in other parts of the world. The Monarto Zoo in Adelaide, Australia, is celebrating the first anniversary of its Solar Tracking System. Three 10-ton “trackers” equipped with 60 solar panels each are designed to follow the sun as it moves during the day and as it shifts between seasons, which increases energy generation by 40 percent from a comparatively sized fixed solar array.
“The Monarto Zoo is an open range animal sanctuary, and this projects fits in with our overall plans,” says Morgaine Wallace, spokesperson for the zoo. “We are very environmentally conscious, and the power generated by the system makes us ‘power neutral.’”
 Wallace says the panels have become a regular stop on the park’s guided bus tour. “They’re an impressive sight, and it’s a topic that interests people. You think, ‘I wonder if this would work on my roof?’”
The large, sheer black solar panels are generally an aesthetic challenge, for both a facility’s architecture and landscaping. To work properly,. the panels need to face south in the Northern Hemisphere (or north in the Southern Hemisphere), and they cannot have buildings or trees obscuring their job of collecting the sun’s rays.
At the Toledo Zoo in Toledo, Ohio, a solar panel project is prominent near the zoo entrance, thus its attractive design. “It’s called the SolarWalk for a reason; we want people to be enlightened as they walk by it,” says Andie Norman, spokesperson for the zoo.
The standard black solar panels are arranged on colorful orange frames that also have benches underneath, providing a shady spot to sit on a warm day. Graphic panels on each frame have information about the energy the panels produce, and lamps lit by solar power are made of handblown glass from the Toledo Museum of Art. “The response from our guests has been outstanding,” says Norman. “People see that green energy and beauty go together.”
Many aquariums are also active in solar projects, with efforts consisting of arrays that provide electricity and solar water heaters. At the Seattle Aquarium, a series of five water heating panels are set up on the south wall of the second floor, preheating water for use in the aquarium’s café. “Many people don’t associate solar energy with Seattle, but it works,” says Mark Plunkett, conservation curator for the facility. “That’s the message that this project brings, plus the fact that it saves the aquarium money.”
John Morell is a freelance business writer based in Los Angeles whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and The NewYorkTimes. He can be reached at john@jcmorell.com.
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