Will the famous 'HOLLYWOOD' sign go Solar before 2010?

Nice find there Mork - I hope they do it!

I hope they do as well. It's probably not economically practical in any way considering the communications fortress and likely available electrical power nearby, but the sign itself isn't really practical, either. It's a big gigantic symbolic sign that America loves, and if it went green, that probably would be a good thing.

It would be harder to read if it were green...

The group behind this is actually hoping they'll be able to come away with a net surplus of energy they can sell back to PG&E. BTW, they don't really plan to put solar panels right ion the sign, but rather hide them on the hillside in an environmentally-friendly way. There's also one plan to paint the actual letters with nano solar paint, which would allow the letters themselves to become the generators.

Cool. :-)

Anyway, the folks behind this have a website: http://solarpanelthehollywoodsign.com/

I see what you're saying, sqlman.

A solar array would definitely benefit the environment and reduce energy consumption, but the sign probably doesn't consume that much power, so the array would have to give power to another electrical demand to offset the sign's usage. Another thing to consider is that batteries are not good for the environment, and in the case of powering night-time lighting with solar power, the only choice is batteries. So a stand-alone system would probably not be efficient. It would not be cost-effective either.

If there were a nearby solar array, the only way for it to efficiently power the sign in an environmentally friendly way would be for it to power other things during the day, thereby offsetting the sign's power consumption from the utility at night.

I think I kind of said what you said, but in a different way... Not sure if it all makes sense...

Also, does the sign stay lit all night? This is important.