Eagles Land on Top of Power Rankings - Not in American Football Of Course, But Still

The Philadelphia Eagles just learned that the line for Stadiums With Cleanest Energy Sources apparently condones frontsies.

Upon further review, the turbines appear to be on-sides.

A $30 million project is soon to be underway at Lincoln Financial Field, home of the footballing Eagles.  The facility will enjoy all its power from renewable sources.  The project includes 80 wind turbines and 2500 solar panels.  It will also feature a cogeneration plant relying on biomass and natural gas.  The Eagles just scored a touchdown environmentally, which reminds me - when faced with the opportunity for glaringly obvious word play, you just need to go for it.

The Linc: one of Philadelphia's finest drinking establishments - now with football!

Such a project is unprecedented in the sports world.  And time will be the judge, but it ought to be the first in a wave of progress in this arena.  Sporting complexes are highly unproductive energy hogs.  Consider a dedicated football stadium - open for business an anemic two-tenths of one percent of the time (eight home games lasting three hours each).  Compare that with an office building, which operates more than 20% of the time - a one-hundred-fold difference.  Both the stadium and the office building are still constructed the same energy-intensive way, but one sits idles almost constantly.  It seems that city governments should be mandating such progressive stances on energy.  Want to build a new stadium?  No problem - now when does the solar array go up?

It should be noted that Lincoln Financial Field will not hold the title for world's most energy-sustainable sporting arena - that honor goes to Taiwan's Kaohsiung National Stadium.  Built in 2009 in preparation for the World Games, it features nearly four times the solar capacity as the Linc.   The Taiwanese don't front.

I don't know whether to attend a professional athletics event in it or wrangle it into a box.