San Francisco: Energy, Sustainability & NECA 2015

Sep 29, 2015

This year’s NECA tradeshow will be held in none other than The Golden Gate City. San Francisco, California is home to several iconic venues such as Bay Bridge, Alcatraz, and Levi’s Stadium. On top of being amazing monuments, these attractions are also sustainable. In fact, they minimize electricity costs to the city and provide clean energy for tourists and residents.

Levi’s® Stadium

Levi’s® Stadium has been named 2015 Sports Facility of the Year and 2015 Venue of the Year by Sports Business Journal. It is known for being the most high-tech stadium in the world! Levi’s® Stadium is the first United Stated football stadium to have achieved LEED Gold certification. It self-consumes PV-electricity generated from is three NRG Energy solar-paneled pedestrian bridges and its one solar- paneled roof deck named the NRG Solar Terrace. The stadium also features a 27,000 square foot Green Roof on top of the suite tower.

The Bay Bridge

The Bay Bridge is San Francisco’s lesser-known bridge that was opened six months before the Golden Gate Bridge in 1936. It transports 250,000 cars a day! At the start of the Bay Lights Project, officials hoped to boost tourism to the area. They estimated 50 million people would see the lights and that the influx of tourism would generate $97 million for the local economy over the following two years. Now, 25,000 LED lights are strung across the 1.8 mile bridge that connects San Francisco to Treasure Island. These lights fire up nightly at dusk and turn off at 2 a.m. each night. The cost per night to power the lights? Only $30 for seven hours!

Alcatraz

Alcatraz was the United States’ premier maximum-security prison from 1934 until 1963. Today? There are no electrical or water lines connecting Alcatraz to the mainland. Actually, the National Park Service has installed photovoltaic panels and a battery system on the island to reduce carbon emissions that would come from ferrying water and diesel fuel to Alcatraz from the mainland. There are 959 PV panels on the cell house roof, powering the entire island. Any of the surplus energy is used to charge a bank of batteries to be stored for later use. If the PV power cannot meet the needs of Alcatraz, the batteries will supply the remaining demand. The entire island is powered by green energy!

Done Exploring the City? Come Visit Us!

Southwire will be stationed at booths 1331, 1340, and 1341. Because we’ve greatly expanded our product offering to include more SIMpull Solutions® products along with our Southwire Tools and Equipment line, we need more than one booth! Be sure to come by, grab a passport, visit our booths, and WIN BIG! We hope to see you there!

For more information about NECA 2015 and how to win cool prizes, please visit http://neca.southwire.com/.