The Limits of Greenness

By Steve Poftak
November 18th, 2008

I was watching football on NBC Sunday night and they had a half-time segment on the network’s “Green” campaign for environmental awareness. Because nothing says environmentally friendly like flying TV personalities, camera crews, and equipment to Australia, Belize, Ecuador, and Greenland.

With that in mind, I read with great interest about the Boston Convention Center Authority’s interest in solar power. They have commissioned a $200k study (paid for from where, I wonder?) to determine the feasibility of adding solar panels to the roof. The proposed facility would provide about 2% of the Convention Center’s power (which costs $4m per year).

Let’s run the numbers. 2% of $4m is $80,000. So, the BCCA just spent $200k to figure out if they could save $80k per year. Which, assuming the capital is free, means it would take 2.5 years just to pay for the study, never mind the cost of actually building, installing, and maintaining the solar panels.