Nov 05 2008
Milan Properties salutes Governer Schwarzenegger in Los Angeles
Schwarzenegger Tours Solar Rooftops in Los Angeles
Milan P. Rubenstein Milan Properties Blog
California Governor Visits Staples Center, Contessa Food Plant
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| Gov. Schwarzenegger (right) tours Contessa’s new food manufacturing plant with Contessa CEO John Blazevich. |
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made appearances on not one, but two rooftops Tuesday to tout major solar power systems that have been installed at the Staples Center and a new food manufacturing facility in Los Angeles.
At Staples Center, the downtown home of the Los Angeles Lakers and four other pro teams, Gov. Schwarzenegger snapped into place the last of more than 1,700 solar panels on the roof of the arena.
The 345-kilowatt solar system will eliminate more than 10,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the next 25 years and provide "all kinds of extra energy for the Lakers," Schwarzenegger said in prepared remarks.
"And I know that if we would have had these solar panels here a year ago, I think that the outcome between the Lakers and the Celtics would have been quite different," he quipped.
California-based Solar Power Inc. designed and built the solar array. The company is installing a slightly smaller system on the roof of the adjacent Nokia Theater. Sports and entertainment company AEG owns and operates both facilities.
The food plant, which is owned and operated by frozen foods manufacturer Contessa, opened early this year as the first frozen foods manufacturing facility in the world to achieve LEED certification.
It includes a heat-recovery system that captures waste heat from refrigeration systems — which run constantly — and redirects it to preheat water for the plant’s boilers, as well as a solar array the size of two football fields on its roof.
Though the solar installation and other green features accounted for $6 million of the facility’s $40 million cost, the plant is "on track" to reduce its energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by a remarkable 65 percent, the Governor’s office said.
"I feel the smart businessman would be justified doing this because it’s going to help them in the long run, and it’s also going to help the planet," John Blazevich, CEO of Contessa, told CBS Evening News in an interview this summer.
The initiatives support the Governor’s initiatives to cut greenhouse gas emissions in California by 25 percent by 2020, and increase renewable energy sources to 20 percent by 2010.
"You know, everyone today, when you turn on the television, talks about there’s one state being red and the other states are blue," Gov. Schwarzenegger said at Staples Center. "We here in California are more interested in building a green state and this is what this is all about here today."
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