RiverCentre going green with solar energy installation

St. Paul's RiverCentre is going green.

City officials announced Friday they're getting $1 million in federal stimulus money to put a 1-MW solar energy facility on the roof.

The project will include a hot-water system to help heat the RiverCentre and may also generate electricity.

Ann Hunt is environmental policy director for the city of St. Paul. She said the project will be larger than a 575-kW system in the works at St. John's Abbey in central Minnesota.

"This is a 1,000-kW system here, so this is about twice as big as what they're doing in St. Cloud. This will be the largest installation in Minnesota," Hunt said.

The $2 million project will be funded by the federal Department of Energy and the city's District Energy utility.

Convention center officials also said they've committed to recycling half the garbage generated by the RiverCentre and Xcel Center by 2011.

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