The Estádio Governador Magalhães Pinto stadium in Belo Horizonte, Brazil
While the sun may not have been shining on Brazil’s players during their recent World Cup 7-1 trashing to Germany in the Estádio Mineirão, the structure is the first World Cup stadium to be entirely powered by solar energy.
Built in Belo Horizonte in 1965, the stadium, officially known as the Estádio Governador Magalhães Pinto stadium, received a massive overhaul in preparation for this year’s World Cup and the upcoming Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
With the backing of the local energy company CEMIG, construction workers installed 6,000 photovoltaic panels circling the roof of the 58,000-seater stadium, making it officially the first World Cup stadium to be entirely powered by the sun’s energy, Inhabitat reported. The cost to build this solar roof amounted to US$16.1m.
The solar panels produce more energy than is necessary to power the stadium (1,600MW-hour per year) – or enough energy to power 1,200 homes – so 10pc of the remaining power will go to regular consumers, according to Inhabitat.
