The single smokestack of the iconic coal-fired steamboat Ticonderoga in Vermont welcomes visitors at the Shelburne Museum and recalls life a century ago of paddle boats and marine industry on Lake Champlain.

But visitors will also soon be greeted by signage that tells another story at the museum — one of a new era of solar and sustainability for the property’s unique, curated buildings and collections.

A National Historic Landmark, the Ticonderoga operated on Lake Champlain from 1906 to 1953 before its relocation in 1955 to land on the Shelburne Museum property by Electra Webb, the museum’s founder.

Webb moved historic buildings to the Shelburne property and housed art collections in them, creating a legacy that now features everything from American folk art to contemporary art. Preserving the museum’s varied collections in buildings that include a 19th century jail and a LEED-certified art center creates an interesting challenge, according to the museum’s director, Thomas Denenberg.

“The Shelburne Museum comprises 39 buildings on 42 acres, so we are fairly energy-intensive,” Denenberg told NetZero Insider. “In a series of buildings, we keep a particular climate to preserve the objects, which can be a French impressionist painting, or it can be a decoy from the 19th century.”

That means facilities within many of the museum spaces boil water to create humidity, keeping a specific climate set point of 70 degrees Fahrenheit and about 50% humidity, he said.

Today, however, most of the museum’s electricity needs are met with a new 500-kW solar array located adjacent to the main campus. And by the end of the year, the museum will commission another 150-kW array, allowing the property to run entirely on renewable energy and provide excess power to the town of Shelburne.

“The solar project is part of a longstanding and concerted effort to be better stewards of the environment while engendering sustainability for the organization, both financial and environmental,” Denenberg said.

Burlington, Vt.-based Encore Renewable Energy built the first array, which is sited away from public view. The company already is working on site development for the second array in an area that will have a little more visibility.

Denenberg says that the smaller array’s location offers a learning opportunity for visitors. Signs on the property will explain the museum’s sustainability mission and the reasoning behind the solar installation. In addition, Denenberg hopes to build a web-based dashboard to demonstrate how much energy the solar panels are generating.

In keeping with its sustainability goals, the museum also partnered with Bee the Change in Weybridge, Vt., to plant pollinator-friendly ground cover on the project site. The field under the new array is now in its first full bloom, offering a critical habitat for bees, butterflies and other creatures that support food security. The second array will feature similar ground cover next summer.

Before the museum embarked on a solar journey, it converted its lighting to LEDs, which had a “knock-on effect” on efficiency, Denenberg said.

“About 10 years ago, we had a moment of inflection where all of a sudden multiple manufacturers were producing bulbs in different temperatures, so it became palatable for museums to use LED lighting in galleries, not just in secondary navigation spaces,” Denenberg said.

Replacing incandescent lights reduced the ambient heat from the facilities’ lighting, which in turn lowered HVAC system usage throughout the museum’s buildings.

To continue a mission of sustainability, Denenberg said he can see the museum converting its medium-duty vehicle fleet to electric when the economics are right. It already has an electric shuttle and small electric carts for staff to move around the museum grounds.

And longer term, he said, the museum could consolidate some of its operations buildings, which were built in the late 1800s.

“That’s easily modeled as a net-zero building,” he said, adding that the timeline for that project would be 10 years out.