Head towards the light.

Hi all,

My name is Matt and I’m not part of The Family that runs OurEveryDayEarth but I was present as best man to Martin when the two families involved were joined through Martin and Katie’s marriage.  I am a touring musician for a stage show called Barrage and on my travels I occasionally come across some pleasantly surprisingly eco-friendly things.  When Martin asked if I would like to write some posts on here I thought I might try my hand as a blogger.  Here goes…

Flying is one of the necessary evils of touring life.  These days with airline ticket prices still reasonably low, the gates to far more scheduling options remain open.  It’s possible for Barrage to do a show in Fort Worth, TX one night and be performing for a corporate event in Kansas City (either side) the next day.  But although financially cheap, the damage the airline industry causes to the environment may be a cost we might not be able to afford in the future.

The solution is not going to appear over night but there are changes that are being made now that are steps in the right direction.  Some of these changes to the flight industry are starting on the ground. I recently flew to Denver, CO and discovered something that they’ve been working on for a while.

Denver Airport's solar panels from spaaaaaace.

Denver Airport (or DIA to those who live by abbreviation) installed themselves a gigantic solar panel array last year that spans seven and a half acres.  The 9,200 panels generate 3 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year and city officials say that it reduces carbon emissions by more than 6.3 million pounds a year!  That’s a very smelly footprint.

The solar panels change their angle to always face the sun.

Impressive figures, yes but even this bold step is only providing the airport with around 4% of its daily juice which amounts to about 2% of it’s yearly consumption.  Yet DIA has taken a bold step towards a cleaner future and although it seems like a lot for little right now,  this is going to nudge other companies and organisations towards similar greener solutions.

Currently the panels are about 15% efficient but experts believe that this percentage could be pushed as high as 50% in the next few years.  I’m hoping that as more and more companies and cities climb on board, budgets devoted to solar research will only swell and seeing a solar panel array may not be something to write on this site about.  That would be very cool.