WEST GLACIER - Glacier National Park has unveiled new solar panels that will provide clean energy for years to come.
“As soon as the sun hits the panels you’ve got electricity being generated,” said Everybody Solar Director of Operations Myriam Scally.
The 108 solar panels installed last year are cutting electricity costs. Now more money can go towards trails, research projects, maintenance, education, and more — something the Glacier National Park Conservancy is excited about.
“I think this will be a really good thing moving forward and kind of freeing up some of those dollars that would normally be going towards electricity for the park and it can go to other critical needs,” said Glacier National Park Conservancy Associate Director for Programs and Policy Lacy Kowalski.
Scally said this project — installed on the roof of the park's headquarters — will save $2,100 a year, and increase the use of clean energy.
“So this system is generating in a year about 25,000 kilowatt hours of electricity which is the equivalent to offsetting about 39,000 pounds of CO2, and that if we translate it into more grounded terms, is like planting 290ish trees a year which across the system will be alive for 25 plus years, It’ll easily be up on the roof, it can last 4o years in many instances, so you multiply that out, it’s a lot of money across the time,” said Scally.
Scally hopes that this conservation project leads to more collaboration with Glacier National Park in the future.
“We’ve got some meetings planned with some of those park folks to try to determine what their needs are and our goal is to look at long-term and long-range goals over the next five to 10 years to see what the needs are and how we can help meet those,” added Scally.
