Six Flags cements commitment to power amusement parks through renewable energy

Visitors to Six Flags aren’t the only ones soaking up the sunshine.

As part of their commitment to sustainability, Six Flags installed solar carport photovoltaic (PV) installations at two of its parks. The company not only wanted to express their support for clean energy, but they also wanted to create more comfort and convenience for their visitors and employees.

To help meet its energy savings goals, we partnered with Six Flags to identify the North America parks that would benefit most from solar energy. We reviewed their portfolio, visited the park sites and performed indicative designs and economic sensitivity analyses.

With this knowledge in hand, two parks in California - Magic Mountain and Discovery Kingdom – were selected as the first to go solar. This was in large part due to the economic benefits and California’s support of renewable energy.

The next step was to identify who would be the most qualified developer to meet Six Flag’s requirements. We found our answer in sPower, who would build, own and operate the installations and sell the electricity to Six Flags, pursuant to two long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs).

We acted as an intermediary at every step along the way, facilitating communication between Six Flags and sPower and leading the negotiations of the PPA business terms. 

The result is that the two parks are now almost entirely powered by solar PV and have exceeded cost savings targets. The PPA structure we created will allow Six Flags to avoid capital expenditures, realize lower PPA rates and benefit from the installation of electric vehicle charging stations, enhanced security features and parking lot upgrades.

Most importantly, Magic Mountain is the single largest solar carport in North America, which cements Six Flags as the entertainment industry market leader in renewable energy and provides a guide to the future adoption of similar systems across the theme park’s portfolio.