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Let the Sun Shine In
August 27, 2009 Golfdom InsiderThe Jockey Club Kau Sai Chau Public Course in Hong Kong recently became the world's first golf facility and the Sebonack Golf Club in Southampton, N.Y., the first U.S. golf club to power their entire golf car fleets with solar energy. Both courses retrofitted their existing Club Car fleets using the SolarDrive system, which is part of the Club Car Solutions Network.
A study of energy use by the Golf Resource Group recently concluded that most golf courses use between 250,000 and 5 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity in their annual operations. At the high end, that’s equivalent to the amount of electricity used in 278 2,500-square-foot houses, according to the report from the Phoenix-based research firm.
“Power costs are very expensive here on Long Island and are getting more expensive around the world,” said Michael Pascucci, owner of Sebonack, which is ranked No. 7 in Golfweek’s 100 Best Modern Courses and No. 39 in Golf Digests’s America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses. “Why not take advantage of the free solar power we have on earth?”
But reducing the charging requirements for the club’s 40 golf cars and lowering its electric bill isn’t the only reason Pascucci retrofitted his fleet with solar canopies.
“We penciled it out and concluded we were going to get our money back pretty easily,” said Pascucci, who first saw the solar canopy system while playing golf with Ernie Els in Jupiter, Fla., last winter. “But even if the numbers weren’t as strong as they are, I still would have done it.”
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