Officials and dignitaries cut the ribbon on a new solar project at Tracy Aviary today as a celebration of Earth Day.
They’re called solar trees and they’re made of two 20-foot limbs which each support a solar panel. The two solar trees at Tracy Aviary are painted pink to match the flamingos, whose habitat rests beneath the new panels.
Tim Brown is the executive director of Tracy Aviary. He says the idea for the project started because the south end of the aviary needed some shade. “We needed shade for the birds and shade for the visitors. And so instead of just building something that provided shade, we’ve actually built something that creates energy while providing that shade,” Brown says.
This is the third solar project at Tracy Aviary in five years, something Brown says he is proud of. “As we think about our future here on Earth Day and we think about how we can lower our impacts on the environment, it seems like every rooftop should try to create energy,” he says.
It’s estimated the solar trees will generate about 9,300 kilowatt hours of energy per year.