By Lena Babaeva Coradini

The Eagles are making the news (the sports team, not the band) for being green! The Philadelphia Eagles have a green initiative that is truly impressive: installation of close to 2,500 solar panels, 80 20-foot-high wind turbines and a generator that runs on natural gas and biodiesel so that Lincoln Financial Field will be the  first stadium capable of generating all its own electricity:

To become self-sufficient, the Eagles have hired Solar Blue, a Florida-based company that will spend more than $30 million to install the solar panels, wind turbines and dual-fuel co-generation plant by the start of next season. Solar Blue chose vertical wind turbines because they produce less noise than bladed ones. They will also capture energy at night. The panels and turbines will meet about 25 percent of the stadium’s energy needs, with the generator covering the remainder, and will be visible to fans in the stadium, on television and to drivers passing by.

The Eagles will pay Solar Blue fixed amounts for their energy with increases of 3 percent a year over 20 years, which gives Solar Blue a guaranteed buyer and the Eagles a predictable source of renewable energy without worrying about erratic spikes in prices. The Eagles expect that their alliance with Solar Blue will help reduce their energy costs by almost 25 percent in the first year. Solar Blue can sell any excess energy it creates to the local utility, PECO.

“This is an opportunity to not be the stereotypical sports franchise that is not on the cutting edge,” said Jeffrey Lurie, the owner of the Eagles, who, with his wife, Christina, created a Go Green sustainability program in 2003. “We’ve read a lot that excellent environmental practices are too expensive or not wise for a company. We challenged that.”

In some ways, stadiums and arenas are ideal for green initiatives because they typically have large roofs for solar panels and ample space for other equipment. Teams and their fans also consume vast amounts of energy, food and beverages, metals and paper goods that can be reduced or recycled.

Sports facilities are also where Main Street and Wall Street collide. Every day, hundreds of thousands of Americans watch sports live at arenas where companies from caterers to chemical makers have their goods on display. Teams are increasingly using their leverage to force these suppliers to go green with them.

 Now not only will their uniforms be green, but the stadium as well!