Doncaster Rovers play their football in the Championship at Keepmoat Stadium having been promoted last season and are currently sitting in 17th position in the league table. They have not had the best of starts but at least they are some 4 points off the relegation zone.
However, off the field, it is interesting to hear that they are to become the first team in the football league to install solar panels at their stadium. The 200 solar photovoltaic panels have been manufactured by Romag that is based in County Durham and are to be installed by Eclipse Solar that is based in Doncaster so it is good to see that there is a significant involvement within the UK.
Apparently, the football club spend not far off £100,000 per annum on energy which is a significant sum so the 50-kilowatt solar panel system will no doubt help to reduce or, at very least, contain this. It is forecast that around £3,000 will be saved in the first twelve months but that over £6,000 income will be generated from the government’s feed in tariff scheme.
It will be interesting to see if any other football league clubs have solar panels fitted at their grounds as, with the many thousands of supporters that attend matches each week, they would make an excellent advert for the solar panel industry.
It was only back in May 2013 that we made reference to the 2014 FIFA World Cup that is to take place in Brazil with some of their stadia having solar panels fitted.
Furthermore, the San Francisco 49ers based in the USA have had solar panels fitted to their new stadium in which American football is played. This system will provide all the energy that the stadium needs to power everything. Interestingly, the 49ers are playing a match against Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium on Sunday 27th October.
