When Super Bowl XLIX kicks off Sunday, the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks will play the first championship game to be held under LED lights. That's not the story football analysts and armchair quarterbacks will focus on — apparently it's not as scintillating as Tom Brady's bid for a fourth title — but clean and efficient energy is increasingly a focus at sports stadiums around the country.

"There is a tremendous amount of opportunity for energy efficiency in the sports industry in general," said Jim Fitzpatrick, business development manager for CLEAResult.

The Arizona Cardinal’s stadium, where the Super Bowl will be held this weekend, hosted the first NFL game under LED lights earlier in the season, and the stadium’s energy efficiency measures have since resulted in a 75% reduction in overall sports lighting energy consumption.

Lighting is only one part of a stadium experience, and by no means is the largest energy consuming portion. Fans actually burn the most energy getting to and from the stadium, and climate control is a large drain in today's indoor venues, said Fitzpatrick. So the potential for energy savings related to sporting events is significant — especially when considered across 32 NFL teams, four major professional leagues, and then factoring in minor leagues, college and high school stadiums.

"You have an opportunity not just to include energy efficiency in the stadium but also to really engage the fans and show energy efficiency with a sporting venue being the platform," Fitzpatrick said. "We're starting to see utilities get more and more involved in this aspect. There is a tremendous opportunity for energy efficiency."

Wind will power Super Bowl

This could potentially be the cleanest Super Bowl in history, leaving aside the Patriot's apparent propensity for deflated balls.
 
As part of a $1 million dollar sponsorship package, Salt River Project will supply free wind power to the Super Bowl. Power was expected to cost about $200,000 for the game, but according to some reports will now run about a quarter of that amount.

"Providing green energy to the game is the perfect opportunity to showcase SRP's commitment to renewable energy," said Tom Cooper, SRP director of Resource Planning and Development. "It also helps raise awareness of the role renewable energy plays in a balanced portfolio designed to deliver affordable, reliable power to our customers." 

That awareness is a key benefit of stadium efficiency and sports-sponsored green energy.

"The main driver for these sports teams is maximizing fan experience," Fitzpatrick said. "Sometimes energy efficiency gets overlooked, but at the same time teams are realizing there is a huge PR benefit but also an economic benefit."

"A number of teams have installed solar on their stadium," he said. "While that may only be offsetting a small percentage of what their actual load is, it's doing much more from a visibility standpoint."

Fitzpatrick dreams of having a star athlete — say, Lebron James or Tom Brady — become the face of energy efficiency.

"We really need these athletes to step up and promote this message," he said. "That's the next biggest challenge ... Imagine if Lebron James was out there talking about recycling or how important LED lights are. A message like that can have a tremendous impact."

The University of Phoenix Stadium, where the Super Bowl will be played, is a member of the United States Green Building Council. The stadium generates 120 tons of recycled trash each year, and has a program to dispose of all used lights bulbs and other electrical equipment.

The first NFL game to be played under LED light was in September, when the Arizona Cardinals hosted the San Francisco 49ers. The University of Phoenix Stadium replaced 780 metal halide fixtures with 312 Ephesus Stadium fixtures — and as a result of the reduced fixture count, over 20,000 pounds of weight was taken out of the catwalks.

The Ephesus system requires 310,000 watts of energy to power compared to the previous system at 1.24 million watts, the stadium's web site boasts.

"The reduced wattage coupled with the lightened load on the air conditioning system, elimination of lighting system maintenance and added efficiency creates an estimated 75% reduction in overall sports lighting energy consumption," the site says.

And the stadium is taking other measures as well, including monitoring real-time electrical usage to coordinate peak and low peak demand hours, providing a guide to optimum usage times.

Greener stadiums a trend

Other stadiums are going green as well.

Just this week the Miami Heat and NRG announced a partnership to transform a portion of the AmericanAirlines Arena into a "solar pavilion," designed to produce green power but also expose fans to sustainable energy solutions. NRG plans to install a solar pavilion on the east side of the arena, with circles spanning 16 to 24 feet in diameter which will appear to be sky lights, but are actually translucent solar panels.

According to the Alliance to Save Energy, Metlife Stadium — home to the New York Giants and Jets — was the most energy-efficient stadium last year (that designation predates the LED lights at Arizona's stadium). Metlife was built in 2010 with an eye towards energy conservation, and ASE said while it is more than twice the size of the original Giants Stadium in terms of square footage, there was an energy use reduction of about 30% as a result of measures like lighting control, energy efficient windows and more efficient plumbing. 

Major League Baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks partnered with APS on a "solar pavilion" which generates 75 KW of solar power while providing shade to the fans. APS is using the solar facility, which has a 20-year life span, as a technical demonstration project to include electric vehicle charging stations and test a battery storage system. 

The St. Louis Cardinals partnered with Microgrid Energy, the Electrical Connection, and Sachs Electric, to bring solar energy to Busch Stadium. The project is powered by 106 solar panels, producing approximately 32,000 KWh of solar energy per year. 

"Although the offset is a relatively small percentage of the stadium's power use, it will result in a large amount of savings over the life of the system," according to the team's web site.

Reheating the pizza

If you're an energy-conscious football fan, you can do your part for the grid by getting up to reheat that pizza or grab a beer during a punt play, and not during commercials. That's because the Super Bowl is a large enough event that fans going to the microwave or opening the fridge during commercials actually spikes electric demand. Back in 2006, a Princeton energy plant manager charted the campus' electric consumption versus PJM Interconnection demand during the big game, with impressive results.

There was no LED lighting at that contest, but it's an interesting graph plotted out against in-game events. And while it did confirm a halftime power spike, students showed an interesting deviation from the general public's power consumption: While most folks went to bed after the game, student power consumption started to rise.

Vegas has this year's game figured as a toss-up, and there seems to be just as much debate surrounding whether the NFL will keep the stadium roof open for the game (hey, reducing power needed for climate control). Utility Dive won't attempt to predict the outcome of the game, but we do have a suggestion for Fitzpatrick: If you're looking for an efficiency spokesman, why not reach out to Marshawn Lynch?