Solar Energy

Solar Energy

Buffalo Sun City, Part Two: Hydro-Powered Solar Silicon Factory Re-Opens in Niagara Falls

Tue

Nov

The tentative greening of Greater Buffalo was a favorite subject of mine in my early days at gbNYC, mostly because I'm a sucker for underdogs and any good news -- be it about the ultra-moribund Buffalo Bills or an attempt to remake the city as a solar manufacturing hub -- about Greater Buffalo always kind of counts as a man-bites-dog story. The just-reopened Globe Specialty Metals plant in Niagara Falls isn't an especially green building in its own right; this is a metal manufacturer, after all. But it's certainly green around the edges: the Globe plant is powered by 40 megawatts of low-cost hydroelectric power courtesy of the New York Power Authority, and will specialize in making high-grade silicon for use in solar panels.

Litchfield House: Zero Energy Saltbox in Connecticut

Sun

Aug

by Stephen Del Percio

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The saltbox is one of the country's oldest home construction techniques and an excellent example of American colonial architecture. Dating from the 1600s across New England, the saltbox's shed roof and single story would face north with little to no glass in an effort to deflect winter winds. The two-story side of the design faced south, using large windows to passively collect solar energy. The Litchfield House is an effort to implement the principles of the historical saltbox using modern green building techniques. Thanks to Jim and John Bleuer of Bleuer Green- which is developing the house, located about halfway between Hartford and Poughkeepsie in Litchfield, Connecticut- for sharing details about their project with gbNYC.

Tishman Speyer Wraps Rockefeller Center in Green for Holidays

Tue

Nov

by Stephen Del Percio

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Just in time for the holidays, and as a nice complement to the efficient LED lights that will grace this year’s Christmas tree, Tishman Speyer has installed 363 solar panels on the roof of 45 Rockefeller Plaza. Last week, at the same press conference announcing both of these initiatives, Tishman, which has owned the complex since 2000, also announced that it’s in the process of installing an ice storage plant to provide air conditioning for the entire Rockefeller Center, as well as an 18,000-square-foot green roof on top of Radio City Music Hall. The 70kW solar panel installation is now the largest privately-owned source of solar power generation in Manhattan, and the ice plant will produce ice overnight from forty-seven tanks powered by Tishman-purchased wind energy.

At a press conference, Mayor Bloomberg praised Tishman’s initiatives, noting that “[w]hen we developed PlaNYC, we hoped that public leadership would inspire private-sector creativity and investment in a greener, greater New York and I want to commend [Tishman Speyer] for stepping up and meeting that challenge.” Tishman’s green efforts aren’t just limited to its work at Rockefeller Center; it also served as the development manager at LEED Gold Court Square Two in Long Island City and has over four million square feet of office space under development in the U.S. for which it intends to seek LEED certification.

Nation’s Fourth-Largest Solar Power Plant to Break Ground in Falls Township, PA

Tue

Sep

by Stephen Del Percio

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As the heat wave in Southern California continues to stress the local power grid, I thought this news out of Pennsylvania was particularly timely. Germany-based Conergy AG will build a $20 million solar power plant in Falls Township, which is just across the Delaware River from Trenton (where some important green projects are already taking place). The Exelon-Epuron Solar Energy Center, as the facility will be called, will employ 17,000 PV panels in order to generate 3,700 megawatts of electricity annually - enough to power 400 homes. Conergy’s U.S. subsidiary Epuron will fund the project, whose output will be purchased for the next twenty years by Exelon Generation, the Chicago-based parent of Philadelphia’s Peco Energy. SunTechnics Energy Systems, Inc., another Conergy subsidiary, is designing and installing the system.