Mystic Seaport Museum Selected for Solar America Showcases Award
May 29, 2008
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced today that the Mystic Seaport Museum is a recipient of a Solar America Showcases award. Solar America Showcases awards provide technical assistance from solar energy experts to high-visibility, large-scale solar installations. For more information on these awards go to http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/solar_america/solar_america_showcases.html .
The Mystic Seaport Museum is a leading center for maritime research and education. Located in Mystic, Connecticut on the site of three historic shipyards, the tourist attraction provides educational opportunities for more than 300,000 people annually. Plans to install a 1 MW photovoltaic system (also known as a PV or solar-electric system) on a historic structure present unique challenges to be addressed by DOE's technical assistance award. Technical assistance provided through this award may include regulatory and permitting assistance, structural analysis, and architectural, mechanical and electrical design assistance to insure compliance with state-of-the-art solar design principles and building codes. In addition, technical experts will assist with overall project management and provide best practices and “lessons learned” from other solar projects.
The Solar America Showcases activity is part of the President's Solar America Initiative (http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/solar_america/index.html) (SAI), which seeks to make electricity generated from solar photovoltaics cost competitive with conventional electricity by 2015. Solar America Showcases are chosen through a competitive award process, with preference to large-scale, highly visible, highly replicable installations that involve cutting-edge solar technologies or novel applications of solar. Technical assistance is provided by solar experts from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, DOE's Southeast and Southwest Regional Experiment Stations, and private firms.
The Notice of Technical Assistance for the final round of 2008 Solar America Showcase awards (http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/solar_america/solar_america_showcases.html) currently is open. Applications are due June 12, 2008.
