Jing Culture and Commerce: The Shelburne Museum’s Green Upgrade Is Solar-Powered
The Shelburne Museum holds as eclectic a collection as any in its verdant corner of New England.
But the museum’s most compelling recent addition lies beyond the walls and centers not on its collection, but its infrastructure. By the end of the year, the museum just south of the Vermont capital of Burlington will be fully powered by renewable energy.
The feat has been achieved by covering two plots of land adjacent to the Shelburne Museum with large solar power systems, known as arrays, the first of which was completed in late 2020. Financed and constructed in partnership with local company Encore Renewable Energy, the arrays have a 25-year life cycle with the museum estimating each year they’ll generate the carbon equivalent of powering 150 New England homes and removing around 200 cars off the road.