Celebrate Earth Day with Solar Facilities at Disney Parks and Destinations Around the Globe

This Earth Day, we're learning more about the energy generated by solar facilities at Disney Parks and destinations around the globe.

What's Happening:

• On Earth Day, Disney is sharing more about how renewable solar energy is helping power their parks and destinations around the world.
• While many fans know of the hidden mickey solar farm near EPCOT at Walt Disney World, each of the resort destinations actually has solar locations, generating over a million kilowatts of solar capacity worldwide - enough to power the annual use of a small town or city.
• At Walt Disney World, there are four sites generating 212,000 kilowatts of solar capacity, with over 600,000 solar panels. That's enough energy for over 19,000 Florida homes for one year.
• A new facility opened on a 484 acre site in Levy County, Florida (on the Gulf Coast), so that the solar generation doesn't rely on sunshine in just one place. This facility has a capacity of 74,500 kilowatts. The popular Hidden Mickey farm near EPCOT has a capacity for 5,000 kilowatts.

• At Disney California Adventure, Radiator Springs Racers is supported by over 1,400 solar panels that provide a capacity of 400 kilowatts - nearly enough power for 100 Anaheim households annually.
• Disneyland Paris serves as home to Europe's largest solar parking lot canopy with a capacity of 36,000 kilowatts and over 80,000 solar panels. While generating enough electricity to power a town of 17,400 people, these canopies also offer guests shade and shelter.

• Hong Kong Disneyland Resort has a solar capacity of 2,860 kilowatts with over 7,500 panels on rooftops across the park—the largest rooftop solar project in all of Hong Kong. Similar to Paris, in 2023, Hong Kong also installed 200 kilowatts of solar capacity in a parking lot canopy, featuring more than 400 solar panels.  
• Shanghai Disney Resort has a solar capacity of 3,870 Kilowatts featuring around 2,000 solar panels including rooftops and facade. Tokyo Disney Resort also utilizes 10 rooftop locations to generate over 1,600 kilowatts.
• Disney Cruise Line has a solar capacity of nearly 4,000 kilowatts - not on their ships, but at their island destinations. Solar panels at Disney Castaway Cay generate 1,400 kilowatts, and 2,500 kilowatts at Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point.

Energy, You Make the (Disney) World Go Round:

• These solar panels and energy generation have come a long way from an earlier example at Walt Disney World.
• Back in 1982, when EPCOT Center opened, solar panels were featured on the roof of the Universe of Energy pavilion that would prove to be a big deal both technologically and thematically to the attraction.
• The roof was covered by 80,000 photovoltaic cells spread across the nearly two acre roof, in about 2,200 solar panels. The system would generate about 77 kilowatts of electricity (a drop in the bucket compared to today's numbers), with the energy converted and used to help power the massive attraction.
• It was even part of the attraction itself, offering guests the chance to "ride on sunshine," with the entire pavilion teaching guests about energy and energy sources while literally standing in a functional solar array.
• The solar panels were later removed as the attraction was replaced by Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind - but as mentioned already, Solar Farms have popped up elsewhere at Walt Disney World and the rest of the state, installed by Disney.