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The Pettit National Ice Center has made Milwaukee a destination for the Olympic speedskating world. Now, the first indoor speedskating oval built in the U.S. is going solar. 

The arena contains enough ice to fill more than five National Hockey League rinks. Like most ice centers, it requires a significant amount of energy to keep its skating surface frozen and dry.

The solar project will cut the 200,000-square-foot facility’s energy use by at least 20 percent and power the building during summer months. 

It’s funded by a large donation gifted to the nonprofit by the climate-focused VoLo Foundation.

Paul Golomski is the Pettit Ice Center’s general manager. He believes the project will help the facility use energy more responsibly. 

“There’s only five (indoor speedskating ovals) in North America, and there’s only 40 operating in the entire world,” Golomski said. “So I think it’s a really smart thing for us to invest in and to ensure that we’re being responsible stewards of our energy consumption.”

He says over a 20-year period, the system will have the impact of reducing the center’s CO2 emissions by 12,778 tons. That’s equal to 191,000 trees planted, or 29,053,530 miles driven by cars.

Milwaukee-based renewable energy company Arch Solar is leading the project — a 690 kilowatt system consisting of 1,200 bifacial solar panels. This allows each panel to absorb sunlight from its front and back sides, producing more energy. 

Andrew Holmstrom is the business development supervisor at Arch Solar. He said the panels will generate enough energy to power a string of Christmas lights from Milwaukee to North Carolina. 

“It’s going to be a clean, green rooftop power plant,” Holmstrom said.

Holmstrom previously lived across the highway from the ice center. 

“I’ve been able to skate on the ice there, run inside there, and so to be able to be a part of this project and kind of leave our fingerprint on the building, it means so much,” Holmstrom said. 

Arch Solar has been on the roof since late November. They hope to have it ready by early April. 

The Pettit National Ice Center is an official training site for U.S. Speedskating. It opened in 1992. The facility will host the U.S. Olympic Team Trials Long Track competition Jan. 2-5.