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How Are Cricket Stadiums Trying to Become More Energy Efficient?

When looking at all of the majestic cricket stadiums in this world, we often think about all of the great cricket achievements that have taken place there. However, what we never stop to consider is the effort that it takes to keep a cricket stadium active season after season. How much energy do stadiums use? Well, if you are as curious as we were, keep on reading to find out about the energy efficiency of cricket stadiums.

How Much Energy Does a Cricket Stadium Consume?

What type of energy management occurs in the biggest cricket stadia such as the Narendra Modi Stadium? In order to answer such a question, we are first going to take a look at the energy details for the average football stadium. We are doing this because it allows us to then compare the energy consumption of football stadiums to cricket venues.

Football Stadiums

In the football industry, there is actually an agreement in place that makes sure that there is investment in renewable energy. This was done as a means to safeguard the future of football for many generations. Fossil fuels are having the biggest impact on climate change, and they are also a finite resource – they will not be around forever. Thus, we have to lower our consumption and come up with smarter ways to generate power. Football is the most popular sport in the world, so it is important to make some necessary changes.

The amount of energy used depends on a number of factors. Obviously not every stadium is the same scale and size – you will have smaller teams with a low carbon footprint, while the bigger teams will obviously have a much higher carbon footprint. For instance, some of the biggest football stadiums in the world can use around 25,000 kilowatts per hour in one match, which is enough power to supply ten houses for more than a year.

Cricket Stadiums

Cricket stadiums are not in any position to take the moral high ground on the matter of energy consumption. This is because more lights are needed, and bigger television screens are used due to the size of cricket pitches. Some of the biggest cricket pitches in the world devour energy at an industrial scale. Any Indian cricket club can find themselves with a hefty bill given the fact that there are 8 lighting towers on average. These use a staggering 11 kilovolts of energy, and a transformer is needed to decrease the load to around 1800 kilowatts.

Since cricket is a national sport in India, there are many games throughout the year, and this only adds to the growing increase in energy use. To give you an idea of just how cricket mad they are in India, it is estimated that around $150 billion is bet on cricket every year. You can find out about all of the best cricket betting sites on this site if you wish. 

Thus, it is estimated that around 620,000 kilowatts of energy are consumed over the course of the year. Since cricket stadiums in India are powered using generators and not directly from the grid since this would cause a permanent blackout, their total carbon footprint is around 3% of India’s total carbon score.

How Are Sporting Authorities Addressing This Issue?

There is an obvious danger with the amount of energy that is being drawn via fossil fuels. To address the issues, changes are being put in place, but they are still mostly in their testing phase. A proposed idea is to cover the roof of cricket venues with solar panels, and there are a number of venues in India that have tried this out already. These are the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium in Kochi, the Brabourne Cricket Stadium situated in Mumbai, and the M Chinnaswamy Stadium that is in Bengaluru. This initiative has been a success so far as it helps to prevent 600 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere every year.

In addition to the reduced out of CO2, cricket stadiums can cut their monthly energy bills in half by having solar panels installed on their roofs. Okay, it is not cheap to have them installed to start with, but with the money that is being saved each month, the installation costs can be recouped in around four years.

How to Limit Energy Consumption Further

Energy efficiency goes beyond simply placing solar panels on the roof. In India and around the world, there are plenty of other ways to reduce energy consumption. We shall take a look at some of these right now.

Pitch generated power: Technology is always getting better and better and now there are tiles that can be placed under a pitch to collect kinetic energy that can then be used by the stadium, saving plenty of money in the long run.

Organic materials: Sports stadium can decrease their impact on the climate by using a 100% organic pitch. So, instead of using nitrogenic fertilizers, they can start to make use of organic materials such as compost tea and coconut wetting agents. The aim of going fully organic can be supported in the food that is on offer at a stadium – do not offer red meat products as these contribute to global warming.

Recycling: The most basic energy saving initiative is to have an effective recycling regime at sports stadiums. There is new generational turf that can help in this recycling area. This turf, which was developed by Desso, a Dutch company, does not need to be watered, cut, or fertilized. The rubber that is used to make the turf is recycled rubber.

Sports Stadiums Can Power Themselves

The future looks promising in our opinion. Although sports have left reducing their fossil fuels usage and decreasing their carbon emissions a bit late, they are taking action now and every little helps. There are many sport businesses now that are investing in energy-saving lighting, adopting recyclable measures, and supporting a variety of green initiatives. At the end of the day, it is also in their best interest to increase energy efficiency as it will benefit them financially too. The progress that is being made in this regard is quite refreshing to say the least.

Take a trip to energyhog.org if you are interested in finding out ways that you can reduce your own energy consumption and do your bit for the global warming cause.

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