I took my kids yesterday to ride a river barge to the new Museum Reach portion the Riverwalk here in San Antonio.

First of all, there’s a lock system where you board.  That was a first for us.  The delta in river level is 9 feet and it only takes about 5 minutes to get from one level to the next.

Veiw from lower portion of lock

From there we traveled a little over a mile up river.  We passed the San Antonio Museum of Art which was the original Lone Star Brewery.  Finally we got out at the Pearl Brewery.  There we saw a fantastic display about the new $1.35 million 200 kw solar array on the roof of the old brewery.  The work was done by Meridian Solar.  The Pearl owners got $400k in subsidy from CSP Energy, which is almost 1/3 of the cost.

There was also a great interactive display which my 7 year old couldn’t be pulled away from.  You can track real time how much energy the panels are generating and whether the facility of buying the extra amount from CPS or selling power back to them.  She loved it.

I highly recommend you check it out.  If you do, bring a hat and a water bottle.