September 21, 2005—In Muscatine, Iowa, the members of Allsteel Incorporated, a leading designer and manufacturer of office furniture, have become accustomed to a sunflower all their own. While not yellow in color, Allsteel’s sunflowers are something to see, the company says.
Measuring more than 20 feet high and encompassing 150 square feet of Allsteel’s garden, these “solar sunflowers” generate one percent of the energy required to power the needs of Allsteel’s 200 members in the company’s headquarters building. This equates to enough energy to power 40 laptop computers, eight hours a day; or the amount of energy needed to run half of the electricity needed for the average home for a month.
The idea for the Solar Sunflowers “germinated” from a meeting held with Allsteel’s Environmental Manager, Scott Lesnet; and John Root, Energy Services Advisor for Muscatine Power and Water. For more information, visit the Allsteel Web site.
