This Year's Super Bowl Stadium Can Withstand Snow and Save Energy
By Dawn Selak, Communications Manager
All those watching the Super Bowl this weekend, take heart: there's a good chance the Minneapolis stadium roof won't collapse---as its predecessor the Metrodome's did in December 2010.
That's because U.S. Bank Stadium, which opened in 2016, features a sleek, practical roof made of a material that lets the snow fall off the roof into a gigantic snow gutter. This transparent material, Ethylene Tetrafluoroethyl (ETFE), also saves energy. It allows natural sunlight into the stadium, giving the venue a natural, outdoorsy feel, while also allowing solar thermal heating that redistributes warm air in the winter and pumps cold air in the summer.
The unique high-tech roof is only one of the stadium's many green features. U.S. Bank Stadium was the first NFL stadium to be built with LED sports lighting, which consumes 75% less electricity than the metal halide lighting typically used in the dark ages (pun intended). The facility was also constructed with a plethora of other energy-efficient features, including high-efficiency motors and advanced air-handling units, all of which combine to cut U.S. Bank Stadium's energy use to 92 thousand British thermal units per square foot (kBtu/sf), compared to the Metrodome's 104 kBTU/sf, and enabled the stadium to be certified LEED Gold last November by the U.S. Green Building Council...
To continue reading this blog post, visit: http://aceee.org/blog/2018/01/years-super-bowl-stadium-can
About ACEEE: The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy acts as a catalyst to advance energy efficiency policies, programs, technologies, investments, and behaviors. For information about ACEEE and its programs, publications, and conferences, visit aceee.org
All those watching the Super Bowl this weekend, take heart: there's a good chance the Minneapolis stadium roof won't collapse---as its predecessor the Metrodome's did in December 2010.
That's because U.S. Bank Stadium, which opened in 2016, features a sleek, practical roof made of a material that lets the snow fall off the roof into a gigantic snow gutter. This transparent material, Ethylene Tetrafluoroethyl (ETFE), also saves energy. It allows natural sunlight into the stadium, giving the venue a natural, outdoorsy feel, while also allowing solar thermal heating that redistributes warm air in the winter and pumps cold air in the summer.
The unique high-tech roof is only one of the stadium's many green features. U.S. Bank Stadium was the first NFL stadium to be built with LED sports lighting, which consumes 75% less electricity than the metal halide lighting typically used in the dark ages (pun intended). The facility was also constructed with a plethora of other energy-efficient features, including high-efficiency motors and advanced air-handling units, all of which combine to cut U.S. Bank Stadium's energy use to 92 thousand British thermal units per square foot (kBtu/sf), compared to the Metrodome's 104 kBTU/sf, and enabled the stadium to be certified LEED Gold last November by the U.S. Green Building Council...
To continue reading this blog post, visit: http://aceee.org/blog/2018/01/years-super-bowl-stadium-can
About ACEEE: The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy acts as a catalyst to advance energy efficiency policies, programs, technologies, investments, and behaviors. For information about ACEEE and its programs, publications, and conferences, visit aceee.org
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