The last thing I want to do is keep the Super Bowl in 2024 alive and in the discussion, but there is a whole discussion that I have not witnessed so I feel compelled to bring it forward.
In this era where you carbon score and emissions are huge part of the movement of course Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, is getting tons of positive press about it being the first stadium to use 100% “renewable energy.” Some of the bragging about being environmental friendly and that is something to squeal about.
So the most interesting part of this discussion is the cigarette waste collection and the owners had in place a system to collect cigarettes in separate containers and converted them into 69,000 watts of electricity. That sounds like a great idea. Same sentiment with the grass clippings that to date amount to 160,800 pounds and have been converted into bio-mass on site.
Now it starts to get a little wonky. It seems most people know that the cost of a Super Bowl ad was $7 million for a 30-second ad. The emission through the digital production of the ads was 2 million tons of carbon dioxide. That is equivalent to 100,000 Americans in one full year.
A big splash
Now in a big splash the stadium brags about a 25-year contract with Nevada Energy sourcing 100% of their electricity from a solar development center in the Nevada desert with over 621,000 solar panels. So what exactly was the environmental impact to placing that number of solar panels on publicly owned land?
So we know that solar or wind cannot be counted on to supply energy 24 hours a day, seven days a week, those sources are intermittent at best. That means a battery is needed. It is reported that Allegiant Stadium has a lithium battery that will store five hours worth of power.
Aside from that the amount of electricity needed for this event is said to have been 10 megawatts, which is equivalent to enough power for 46,000 homes, according to Nevada Energy CEO Doug Cannon. While I can find a tremendous of discussion about the contract with Nevada Energy I cannot find what the price paid per kilowatt hour for the electricity is.
Solar math
I do see that the standard price estimated for all solar panel production to roughly $1 per kilowatt hour. In addition I see the estimated cost of the lithium battery to add another $1.2 to $1.5 per kilowatt hour. So with very simple arithmetic it appears the cost of electricity for the Super Bowl was $2.5 million.
I realize they may have gotten a real sweetheart deal that you and I would not get but I wonder how much of my taxpayer dollars is involved in the development of the solar and the consumption by this for profit entity to play a game. Just for comparison my current electric supply cost me 8 cents per kilowatt hour.
And finally the bacon benefit. The stadium brags about the 12,000 pounds of wasted food from events like this are donated to a local pig farmer so the food does not got to the dump and rot.
So at the end of the day the pigskin they throw around and kick around in a highly subsided environmentally friendly building is still dependent on the farm to make the world go around. I say the pigs are the real stars of this show.
Editor’s note: The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not represent the views of High Plains Journal. Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.LoosTales.com, or email Trent at [email protected].
