Sunday’s Nascar Sprint Cup race may have been delayed by rain, but Pocono Raceway’s plans to install a giant solar array are right on track. (Excuse the pun.) Some 40,000 photovoltaic (PV) panels are to be installed on a lot across the street from the raceway. It’s anticipated that the panels will together generate about three megawatts of electricity. At this size, the project would be the biggest such system installed at a sports complex in the world — and the biggest solar installation in all of Pennsylvania.

At a projected cost of $15 million to $17 million, the Pocono plan is far from cheap. But, as reported by Viv Bernstein, the solar panels are expected to generate reliable revenue over the long term, making the decision a no-brainer:

“I think it’s unique,” Pocono Raceway’s president, Brandon Igdalsky, said in a telephone interview this week. “I think that the fact that it’s a raceway that’s going to be the sports facility that’s really going to go all out and do this, I think it definitely puts us in a league of our own.”

…

Igdalsky said the track decided to go this route when deregulation threatened to raise the track’s annual power bills by nearly 40 percent, to as much as $500,000.“We needed a way — how can we save the most money on our power usage?” Igdalsky said. “It’s good for us. It’s good for the environment. It’s good for the community.”

Pocono Raceway officials anticipate generating considerable money each year — in the “seven figures,” Igdalsky said — by selling the energy produced to PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission organization that operates a wholesale electricity market and grid.

In past months, the state of Pennsylvania has generated a lot of buzz in solar circles by launching a solar rebate program and, most recently, by announcing a limited state solar tax credit. When combined with federal renewable energy tax credits (or grants), state-sponsored initiatives can help facilitate the planning and financing of solar energy projects — for businesses and homeowners alike. In my view, Pocono Raceway’s solar plans are a prominent example of the growing interest in solar among Pennsylvanians, locally, and among sports fans more broadly. Let’s hope both trends continue.

As for the Red Cross Pennsylvania 500, it’s been rescheduled for today (Monday) at 12:15.