Tracy Aviary Installs Solar Panels With Blue Sky Help

None by KCPW

Offsets 9.5 Tons of Carbon Dioxide Emissions

(KCPW News) Tracy Aviary has gone solar with a $50,000 grant from Rocky Mountain Power's Blue Sky Program. Spokesman Jeff Hymas says the 30 photovoltaic solar panels installed on the aviary's Lory Building should generate about 9,500 kilowatt hours of renewable energy annually:

"That's enough to offset about 9.5 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year, and it has the same environmental benefit as not driving more than 20,300 miles and planting about 3.7 acres of trees."

The solar panels will light, heat and cool the Lory Building, home to Australian Lorikeets during cold weather, as well as areas for the aviary's flamingos and Backyard Birds of Argentina exhibit. Tracy Aviary Executive Director Tim Brown says renewable energy is a natural fit with the mission of the 69-year-old bird park:

"As a conservation/education organization, it's just a no-brainer that we need to figure out how to reduce our carbon emissions and start addressing climate change. It's impacting birds - migration, when food's available for birds when they get to different locations - and in the near future it's going to impact humans, too."

Located at Liberty Park, 1300 S. 700 E., SLC, Tracy Aviary has a collection of approximately 350 birds representing about 135 different species - many considered rare or endangered.

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