Devil's Garden Campground

This comfort station and a nearby amphitheater are powered by this solar array.

Devil's Garden Campground is located 30 miles inside Arches National Park. The facilities requiring electricity at the campground are two campground hosts, three comfort stations, an amphitheater and a ranger contact station.

Electricity was historically provided by diesel generators operating 24 hours a day and consuming over 6,400 gallons of fuel annually. Generating electricity with diesel fuel at Devil's Garden Campground cost the National Park Service over $22,400 per year or $0.28/kilowatt-hour (kWh).

The emissions and noise from the diesel generators intruded on the silence of the Devil's Garden Campground and negatively impacted both air quality in the park and visitor experience.

A partnership between the National Park Service, the Utah Department of Natural Resources and the Utah Department of Community and Economic Development was created to provide the financial resources, technical engineering assistance and project management expertise necessary to install a photovoltaic/diesel hybrid power system at Devil's Garden Campground.

Project Description

Each PV system has a battery bank of four flooded, deep-cycle batteries.

In 1995, four photovoltaic/diesel hybrid systems were installed to provide electricity for two campground host/comfort stations, a comfort station/amphitheater and a ranger contact station. Each site has a 1.4 kilowatt (kW) tracking array, a 4 kW inverter and a 40 kWh battery bank.

Project cost was $80,000 and financed through a cost-share between the state of Utah's Department of Natural Resources and Department of Community and Economic Development ($40,000) and the National Park Service ($40,000).

Cost-effective energy efficiency measures were identified and installed to reduce electricity use at Devil's Garden Campground facilities. Energy efficiency measures included installation of occupancy sensors and photocells, lighting retrofits in NPS buildings, daylighting and the purchase of energy efficient appliances.

Results

This campground host trailer and a nearby comfort station are powered by one of the PV systems.

Photovoltaic/diesel hybrid power systems reduced diesel generator run-time from 24 to less than 4 hours per day.

Energy efficiency measures expected to reduce electricity consumption by at least 35 percent.

Operation and maintenance costs of diesel generator system decreased from $22,400 per year to $10,000.

Environmental benefits include a significant reduction of air and noise pollution from the diesel generators. Emissions reductions are estimated to be 50 tons of CO², 630 lbs. of NOX, 120 lbs. of SOX and 80 lbs. of CO annually.