When you visit Honolulu Hale this holiday season, look for the "Santa Goes Solar" display.
It's unique in that it is totally solar powered.
Young and old alike were busy this past weekend getting the Santa Goes Solar display ready on the grounds of Honolulu Hale.
"Well, the great thing is this year is the first year that we've ever had a display at Honolulu Hale and it's completely powered by the sun. Sunetric, a local company brought in these solar panels and put it over our display," said Ivory McLintock of the Blue Planet Foundation.
There was a tremendous cooperative effort to put the display together - along with Sunetric, Blue Planet had other partners as well.
"And then we actually had a team from UH Manoa that engineered, putting together all the LED lights, really energy efficient lights, to go around the entire display," McLintock says.
For the uninitiated, solar power doesn't just work in the day time. Energy can be stored for the night time display.
"The solar panels are set up above the display and then underneath the display is the batteries. So we're not actually powering the lights during the day time, but the solar panels are plugged into the batteries so at night time, we're getting all that energy from the batteries," McLintock says.
Helping with the display, the folks from Sunetric.
"Sunetric's just really excited to be a part of the Honolulu City Lights display this year and partnering with Blue Planet and think it's a great partnership and we're excited to see the lights come on in the display," said Laura Poirier of Sunetric.
And the cooperative green effort goes even farther.
"We have the UH students represented, the engineering, the things that we have here for the lights. We also have the LEGO enthusiasts, they represent the innovation, the creativity, that come together for this. We have local solar companies, representing renewable energy - then being able to put it all together and put it all it on display and for the entire public to see over Christmas is incredible," McLintock says.
