The sports cliche goes that when a team is having a strong performance, they are “playing lights out,” but in Saturday’s contest between the New York Rangers, as they visited the Seattle Kracken, this was not a testament to the on-ice play. Barely one minute into the game, play was halted, and the officials had to convene to make some harsh conclusions. It was decided that in the interest of fairness, the teams would be switching ends of the ice every ten minutes.

This decision came about because, at the 1:09 mark of gameplay, the lighting at one end of the arena suddenly cut down significantly. The only explanation given has been that there was an issue with the electrical grid inside the arena.

Sam Rosen breaks down the lighting issues in Seattle - @NYRangers and @SeattleKraken are going to switch ends at the 10 minute mark of each period 👀 pic.twitter.com/Bv2FvbuuTz

— Rangers on MSG (@RangersMSGN) October 22, 2023

Many reporters and fans were commenting on how this was something never before seen in an NHL contest. It stands as an embarrassment, obviously, for the organization that is starting only its third season. The newest arena in the NHL has been touted for a number of reasons, most of those environmental in nature, as there was a serious effort to develop an entirely “green” sports complex.

The Kracken play in Climate Pledge Arena, and this is more than a naming sponsorship promotion – the hockey rink and the sports complex site are said to be powered entirely with 100 percent renewable energy. The roof of the stadium is arrayed with solar panels said to be generating a large portion of the electrical needs. Other ways of attempting to burnish the environmental standing are providing free monorail service to the rink, removing single-use plastic drinks containers, and bathrooms with waterless urinals. The franchise says they have created the ice surface with captured rainwater from its own cistern system.

Any further power needed that is not supplied by its solar panels and delivered on-site is derived by way of offsetting carbon usage. This is achieved through the use of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs).

Sidebar: RECs are a way for outfits to purchase a right to state they use green energy. The electricity created by wind farms or solar panel fields is fed into the electrical grid along with other conventionally generated electricity. RECs are a way for an entity to “buy” only the green energy fed into a municipal grid and thus tout its green operations. The EPA even alludes to this convenience, stating that RECs allow you to “claim” that you are thus “green.”

RECs play an important role in accounting, tracking, and assigning ownership to renewable electricity generation and use. On a shared grid—whether the electricity comes from on-site or off-site resources—RECs are the instrument that electricity consumers must use to substantiate renewable electricity use claims. 

Since the team can use this additional symbolic tactic to make the boast of being 100 percent renewable, then it is proper to look at the imagery from an arena delivering an unacceptable amount of power for a game. The optics of a green energy sports franchise experiencing partial blackouts is an apt metaphor for the problems experienced with insisting on a “green” power grid.