MARTA wins solar energy grant (Atlanta, GA)

[jpak]

http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2009/09/21/daily12.html

MARTA will use $10.8 million in federal grant funding to install solar panels atop bus canopies at its Laredo Bus Maintenance Facility in Decatur, America’s top transportation official said Monday.

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced the grant, which will come out of the federal economic stimulus program, at the transit agency’s Five Points station in downtown Atlanta.

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The project will become the largest photovoltaic system in Georgia. The steel and concrete bus canopies will cover 220 bus parking stalls, with translucent solar panels allowing in natural lighting during the day and an energy-efficient lighting system producing illumination at night.

The panels will generate electric power equivalent to the facility’s annual consumption of electricity, with potential for future expansion.

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