The Washington Redskins are installing solar power at their FedEx Field and will be able to get a portion of their game-time energy from the sun and power the entire stadium during off times entirely with 8,000 NRG solar panels.

The football team joins a short list of other professional athletic teams leading the charge toward renewable energy.

“We’re going to be one of the first teams to do this,” said Tony Wylie, spokesman for the Redskins. “This is really going to enhance the game experience for our fans.”

To date, only two other teams, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Seattle Seahawks, have announced solar installations, although construction has not begun on either project. 

The Redskins signed a deal with NRG in June, and the solar panels are expected to be installed and producing energy by September. They’ll all be installed in the stadium’s Platinum A1 Parking lot and will cover 850 premium parking spaces.

Along with powering the stadium, the panels will provide energy to 10 electric car charging stations. Of the 10, four will be reserved for premier parking pass holders who are allowed to reserve preferred spaces, Wylie said. The other six will be available on a first come, first serve basis, and all of them will offer free electric car charging.

FedEx Field is located in Landover, MD., not far outside of Washington, D.C.

"There is nothing like homegrown, in this case stadium-grown, energy," Fred Smith, chairman, president and chief executive officer of FedEx Corporation and part owner of the Washington Redskins, said in a statement. "Solar can be a very smart investment. I am pleased to see FedEx Field moving in this direction and increasing its own energy independence."

The team didn’t spend a long time contemplating the idea, Wylie said. The idea was put out there that the stadium could get some of its energy from solar power, and the team’s leadership started working on the project right away.

From the time the Redskins began talking with NRG, a New Jersey-based subsidiary of Reliant Energy, to the time the panels will be fully installed and functional is just three months, Wylie said.

“It’s happening pretty fast,” he said. “We’re doing this because it’s the right thing to do. We’re being part of the solution.”

Image courtesy of http://www.washington-redskins-tickets.com.