Dirk, When I worked at the Field Museum in Chicago we had solar panels on the roof, I believe as part of the same "program" Treloar from the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum mentions. I'm sure if you called the Field Museum's facilities department they would give you some information--they are nice folks. I forget the exact details, but I think on a really sunny day the panels could provide roughly 5% of the museum's power--doesn't sound like much, but that would have been enough to power something like 8-10 residential homes (the Field Museum is a big building). I forget what percentage of the roof the panels covered.... As for such panels paying for themselves, I think you are probably better off doing it because you want to help save the planet by conserving fossil fuels and/or letting people experiment as they look for better ways to produce alternative energy. Have you tried contacting your city or state's dept. of "environment" or the equivalent? They may have incentive programs....or local energy utilities may want to sponsor a solar panel installation.... Daniel W. Eck Deputy Director for Administration John Michael Kohler Arts Center 608 New York Avenue, P.O. Box 489 Sheboygan, WI 53082-0489 920.458.6144 (voice) 920.458.4473 (facsimile) [log in to unmask] ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).