# New York, Solar City by The Txchnologist

- Link: https://greenlivingguy.com/2011/04/new-york-solar-city-by-the-txchnologist/
- Published: 2011-04-11T17:35:34-04:00
- Author: greenlivingguy

_**Source: The Txchnologist**_

It will be a sustainable building milestone: a structure that generates every watt
of power it needs from a 96-kilowatt (KW) canopy of solar panels, perched like a
beetle’s black carapace above its roof. Ground source heat pumps will warm the structure,
called Solar 2, in the winter, and heavily insulated walls will keep hot air out
in the summer.

Solar 2, a green energy education center for the nonprofit group Solar One, won’t
be built in the Sunbelt or in an off-the-grid national park. Instead, it will occupy
a contaminated landfill site on Manhattan’s East River, near some of the most densely
packed streets in the world. Solar One is currently raising money to construct the
$12 million building, which has qualified for a Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED) Platinum award from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Less than 20 years ago, a “net-zero energy building” building wouldn’t have stood
a chance on New York’s mean streets, according to Gregory Kiss of Kiss+Cathcart 
Architects, the building’s designer. At the time, buildings outfitted with photovoltaic
solar panels — called building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) — were coming into
vogue in California and Northern Europe, but New York developers and homeowners 
wouldn’t bite. Solar panels were too expensive, there were no financial incentives
to installing them, and the approval process was cumbersome. It was, in some circumstances,
even illegal to install solar panels on a building and then try to connect to the
grid, according to New York energy experts.

_Times have changed._

“Now every project [we design] that is highly sustainable is right in New York City,”
said Kiss.

An increasing number of high-profile projects, from commercial high-rises to mixed-
and low-income housing in Brooklyn and the South Bronx, are putting solar panels
in every conceivable spot: on rooftops, in vertical walls, and inside the skins 
of buildings. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)
and the federal and city governments offer incentives and rebates for installing
solar panels but architects and developers say the drive for green architecture 
goes beyond the financial. Developers at some buildings, such as The Solaire in 
Battery Park City, see solar as a selling point for the (mostly affluent) buyers
they seek to attract. “At The Solaire, they were very conscious about creating a
solar entry canopy,” according to Marissa Vaish, a senior project manager at RELAB,
an energy consultancy that designed the building’s solar power systems.

In the past five years, solar photovoltaic capacity in the Big Apple has almost 
quadrupled from about 1.5 megawatts (MW) to 5.7 MW, according to a recent report
called New York City’s Solar Energy Future ([pdf](http://www1.cuny.edu/sites/sustainable/)).
The growth rate is accelerating and the city could add another 45 to 70 MW of solar
capacity by 2015, according to the New York City Solar America City Partnership.(
New York utility Con Edison claims 1 MW can power 1,000 homes.)

“We’ve doubled the amount of solar in the city in the last year alone,” said Tria
Case, the executive director of the City University of New York’s [Center for Sustainable Energy](http://www1.cuny.edu/sites/sustainable/),
which coauthored the report. “I have not heard of any other city with that percentage
in growth.”

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 greenlivingguy

 The Green Living Guy, Seth Leitman is an independent power producer, a green living
expert, and Editor of the McGraw-Hill, TAB Green Guru Guides. Seth is also an Author,
Radio Host, Reporter, Writer and an Environmental Consultant on green living. The
Green Living Guy writes about green living, green lighting, the green guru guides
and more. Seth's books range from: # Build Your Own Electric Vehicle by Bob Brant
and Seth Leitman (2nd and 3rd editions) # Build Your Own Plug-in Hybrid Electric
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Lighting by Seth Leitman, Brian Clark Howard and Bill Brinsky # Solar Power For 
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Do-it-Yourself Home Energy Audits by David Findley # Build Your Own Small Wind Power
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