When I first read this I thought…what? It turns out the Ice House of New Jersey, the Tri-State area’s largest ice arena, has flipped the switch on an 843 kilowatt (kW) solar system. That’s almost reaching one megawatts of power. And yet even at that level the system designed and installed by Mercury Solar Systems Mays Landing office is expected to meet only 22 percent of Ice House’s annual electricity needs. The facility has consistently drawn the attention of Gold Medal Winning Olympic Skaters to NHL Professionals. In 2002, Ice House sent 9 skaters to the Olympics including gold medalists Sarah Hughes, Elena Bereznaia and Anton Sikharulidze. Tara Lipinski, Oksana Baiul, and Sasha Cohen also utilize Ice House as their local training facility.
Over 3,660 solar panels will produce enough energy to power 265 average size residential homes every year. This is equivalent to recycling over 16 million cans of soda, planting 60,000 trees and taking 110 cars off the road every year. “This system has drastically reduced our reliance on fossil fuels and will provide a cleaner environment for the thousands of kids that utilize our facility every year,” commented Robert Bakos, Operations Manager at Ice House. “We are in the process of installing a solar information station in our facility to help educate the kids about the benefits of solar energy.”
Jared Haines, President of Mercury Solar Systems said, “”We commend Ice House for taking this step toward a greener future. Solar energy systems continue to produce significant savings and a solid return on investment for local businesses in New Jersey and we believe this will continue to drive the market forward.” Mercury Solar Systems is one of the leading solar integrators on the East Coast recognized for two consecutive years as one of Inc. 500′s fastest growing energy companies. The Company designs and installs solar panels and solar energy systems for commercial and residential customers and to date has installed nearly 2,000 solar systems in excess of 30MW of energy.