The Greening of Grandfather

It is not quite big enough to call a solar “farm,” so we're calling it a solar “garden.”

Last year Grandfather Mountain President Crae Morton hired professors from the ASU Department of Technology to investigate ways that the travel attraction might reduce its carbon footprint and decrease its impact upon the landfill. Efforts are now underway to implement many of the recommendations, including the installation of photovoltaic panels that will generate electricity for the power grid.

“We have a big field that faces South,” explained Morton, “and this is the perfect location to take our first step with this technology.”

Morton enlisted Grandfather’s Assistant Trails Manager Luke Appling to serve as the Mountain’s “Green Manager” and turn the 1.5-inch-thick report submitted by those ASU professors into action. Appling hit the ground running - establishing recycling stations, replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs, enrolling Grandfather in the High Country Biofuel Cooperative and converting the attraction’s restaurant to biodegradable plates & utensils.

“This is the first time that I’ve felt I can make a difference with something I believe in,” said the 31-year-old Appling. “Here at Grandfather I have the unbelievable opportunity to touch hundreds of thousands of people. If even a small percentage of those people, having seen alternative energy practices at work, recognize that changing our energy consumption habits is in fact an attainable goal and leave here willing to make a change in their own households, my efforts will have a huge impact.”

As meaningful as it has been for Appling to lead the effort to waste less energy at Grandfather Mountain, the really exciting activity got underway in November when Sundance Systems of Mars Hill started constructing the apparatus for Grandfather to start generating energy of its own; solar energy. The team is now waiting for the power company to supervise the final steps necessary for connecting the system to the grid.

Phase 1 of the solar “garden” will generate seven kilowatts of electricity per month to be sold directly to the grid through TVA’s Green Power Switch. Once the system is in place and running smoothly, Grandfather will probably expand the number of photovoltaic cells to produce 50 kilowatts a month, thereby elevating Phase 2 to solar “farm” status.

Appling explained that the solar garden represents a substantial investment up front on the part of Grandfather Mountain, but Federal and State tax credits make the venture much more attractive. And because the company will be selling solar power back to the power company, the photovoltaic panels should pay for themselves in a little more than six and a half years.

“Photovoltaic cells are the least invasive way of producing energy,” said Appling, “and this system has the chance to outlive me. There are almost no moving parts and very little maintenance. It will be generating power for years to come. You can’t beat that.”

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