Showing posts with label ENERGY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ENERGY. Show all posts
Thursday, January 7, 2016
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Very Excited to Announce our Newest Project in Buffalo!
Solar garden to be installed in Newfane
Town officials announced at a ground breaking ceremony on Monday that a solar garden will be installed at the Newfane Old Apple Orchard location.
Check out this story on WGRZ.com: http://on.wgrz.com/1MtUlqM
Town officials announced at a ground breaking ceremony on Monday that a solar garden will be installed at the Newfane Old Apple Orchard location.
Check out this story on WGRZ.com: http://on.wgrz.com/1MtUlqM
Monday, July 6, 2015
Thursday, April 9, 2015
City of Troy Goes Solar
The city of Troy is planning to install a 3 megawatt solar farm on several city-owned properties as part of a deal that could save the city $300,000 annually in electric costs.
Last month the city council authorized the mayor to sign a memorandum of understanding with Monolith Solar of Rensselaer to build the solar farm, which would be paid for up front by Monolith.
The city would enter into a 20-year power purchase agreement with Monolith to buy the solar power, which would net the city roughly $300,000 in annual credits from National Grid.
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Friday, March 20, 2015
Monday, March 9, 2015
New York is moving on up!!
New York Just Showed Every Other State How to Do Solar Right
"This is as exciting as the Public Service Commission gets."
New York wants to get serious about solar power. The state has a goal to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, and it's already among the nation's solar leaders. New York ranks ninth overall for total installed solar, and in 2013 alone it added enough to power more than 10,000 homes.
While that's great news for solar companies and environmentalists, it's a bit of a problem for electric utilities. Until recently, the business model of electric companies hadn't changed much since it was created a century ago. (The country's first electric grid was strung up by Thomas Edison in Manhattan's Lower East Side in the 1880s, and some parts of it continued to operate into the 2000s.) Utilities have depended on a steady growth in demand to stay ahead of the massive investments required to build power plants and the electric grid. But now, that tradition is crumbling—thanks to the crazy growth of rooftop solar and other alternative energy sources and some big advances in energy efficiency that have caused the overall demand for electricity to stop growing. Meanwhile, utilities in New York are also required to buy the excess power from solar buildings that produce more than they need—a policy called "net metering".
But here's the thing: Even the most ardent climate hawks agree that we can't afford for utilities to go out of business altogether. Someone needs to maintain and manage the grid. Hardly any solar homes are actually "off the grid," since they still depend on power lines to soak up their excess electricity during sunny afternoons and deliver power at night. In fact, net metering is a key factor in making solar economically viable to homeowners.
The question of how to aggressively slash carbon emissions without completely undermining the power sector (and simultaneously raising the risk of blackouts and skyrocketing electric bills) is one of the big existential questions that climate-savvy lawmakers are now trying to figure out. And last week in New York, they took a huge step forward.
Under a new order from the state's Public Service Commission, utility companies will soon be barred from owning "distributed" power systems—that means rooftop solar, small wind turbines, and basically anything else that isn't a big power plant. (There are some rare exceptions built into the order, notably for giant low-income apartment buildings in New York City that small solar companies aren't well-equipped to serve.)
"By restricting utilities from owning local power generation and other energy resources, customers will benefit from a more competitive market, with utilities working and partnering with other companies and service providers," the commission said in a statement.
The move is part of a larger package of energy reforms in the state, aimed at setting up the kind of futuristic power system that experts think will be needed to combat global warming. The first step came in 2007, when the state adopted "decoupling," a market design in which a utility's revenue is based not on how much power it sells, but on how many customers it serves. (Remember that in most states utilities have their income stream heavily regulated by the state in exchange for having a monopoly.) That change removed the incentive for utilities to actively block rooftop solar and energy-saving technology, because lost sales no longer translate to lost income. But because utilities could still make money by recouping the cost of big infrastructure projects through increases to their customers' bills, they had an incentive to build expensive stuff like power plants and big transmission hubs even if demand could be better met with efficiency and renewables.
Now, under New York's most recent reform, a utility's revenue will instead be based on how efficiently and effectively it distributes power, so-called "performance-based rates." This, finally, provides the incentive utilities need to make decisions that jibe with the state's climate goals, because it will be to their advantage to make use of distributed energy systems.
But there's a catch, one that had clean energy advocates in the state worried. If utilities were allowed to buy their own solar systems, they would be able to leverage their government-granted monopoly to muscle-out smaller companies. This could limit consumer options, drive up prices, and stifle innovation. That, in turn, could put a freeze on consumers' interest in solar and ultimately slow down the rate at which it is adopted. But if small companies are allowed in, then the energy market starts to look more like markets for normal goods, where customer choice drives technological advances and pushes down prices.
"New York's approach to limit utility ownership balances the desire for more solar with the desire to have competitive markets that we expect to continue to bring down the costs of solar," said Anne Reynolds, director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York.
The upshot is that solar in New York will be allowed to thrive without being squeezed out by incumbent giants like Con Edison and National Grid.
"This is as exciting as the Public Service Commission gets," said Raya Salter, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York who worked with state regulators on the plan. "These are bold, aggressive changes."
The policy puts New York on track for a new way of doing business that many energy wonks now see as inevitable. In the past, the role of electric utilities was to generate power at a few central hubs and bring it to your house; in the near future, their role will be to facilitate the flow of power between countless independent systems.
"We need to plan for a primarily renewable system," said John Farrell, director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which advocates for breaking up the old utility model as a key solution to climate change. "We want to pay [utilities] for doing things we want, rather than paying for their return on investment for the things they build."
So far, the response from utilities has been receptive; a spokesperson for Con Ed said the company looks forward to developing details for how the order will move forward.
The change in New York could become a model for other states, Reynolds said. Regulators in Hawaii are already considering a similar policy.
"Everyone is watching to see what's happening here," she said. "It's really a model of what a utility could be in the future."
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
New Revolution in Solar Panels
Check out our NEW Trina Smart Panels ... it's time to take full advantage of the SUN!!
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Friday, September 26, 2014
Monday, September 22, 2014
The Rockefellers are getting out of oil and starting to buy the sun - what's next?!
Rockefellers to withdraw fossil fuel investments
NEW YORK — The scions of the American oil industry are divesting from fossil fuels.
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, established by Standard Oil Co. tycoon John D. Rockefeller, will begin untangling its $860 million of investments from fossil fuels and shift those dollars toward renewable energy, the philanthropy will announce Monday.
The action is another symbolic step away from greenhouse-gas emitting fuels, which most scientists blame for warming the planet. It also shows the expanse of the "divest-invest" push led by environmental activists. The effort aims to persuade large endowments to shift their investments from fossil fuels to cleaner sources, such as renewable energy, that first targeted universities.
The theory is that policies aimed at restraining carbon emissions will make investing in fossil fuels more risky. Environmental activists point to credit downgrades of coal companies and coal-based utilities following proposed Obama administration cuts to carbon emissions from power plants as an example.
Events around New York timed around Tuesday's United Nations climate summit — such as a march Sunday that organizers say drew 300,000 — have underscored the push to address climate change.
The Rockefeller move highlights some of that sentiment. Standard Oil, after all, spawned the likes of ExxonMobil and Chevron.
The divesting movement is picking up steam. The Rockefeller announcement will come as part of a broader coalition of philanthropies, non-governmental organizations and faith groups that will reveal $50 billion worth of assets divesting from fossil fuels.
Philanthropies are a newer target. More than 160 environmentalists from 44 countries last week prodded philanthropies — particularly those that offer grants and other funds to projects aimed at curbing climate change — to pull investments in fossil fuel companies.
Institutional lenders also have begun exploring ways to offer more environmentally friendly options for their clients. Activists are pressuring traders as well — on Monday, they protested on Wall Street with a rally that reminded many of the Occupy movement.
But the divestment push is still fairly new and faces some roadblocks.
Deborah Gordon, director of the climate and energy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said she doesn't envision that markets — especially commodities traders — will quickly respond to longer-term climate threats.
"I'm a little less hopeful when it comes to the investment community," Gordon told the Washington Examiner. "They are very much trying to take advantage of the instance in trade. And climate change is very much not that."
Pension funds, too, are a bit trickier for the divestment movement. They're a big target, controlling billions of dollars in assets. But they are run by boards with a responsibility to their pensioners — and fossil fuel companies have provided fairly stable returns.
Scott Stringer, the comptroller for New York City, told the Washington Examiner that withdrawing the city's $160 billion pension fund from fossil fuel investments is "on the table," but he noted he is just one person on the board.
"I'm the fiduciary of the fund. It's not my money. There's five other people — I don't have a unilateral role in this," Stringer said at the People's Climate March on Sunday. "But there's so much more we can do, like on corporate governance. So we're looking at all those options."
Friday, September 12, 2014
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Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Friday, September 5, 2014
GOING SOLAR
Every second, our sun produces enough energy to sustain the Earth's needs for 500,000 years. Let's SOLARIZE it!
Thursday, August 21, 2014
South Colonie Schools have plans to GREEN their roof!
Monolith Solar - Thursday, August 21, 2014
Solar-powered schools planned in South Colonie
The South Colonie schools are on track to have the largest solar array of any district in New York State.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has approved funding for more than 5,700 solar panels to be spread across each of the district’s eight schools and on the administrative building, transportation department offices and athletic fields at Colonie Central High School. When installed, school officials have said, it could save the district $1.7 million over the next 20 years and provide almost all its power.
The district’s proposal is undergoing a standard engineering review by the state Education Department before the work can begin, but Superintendent Jonathan Buhner is optimistic the panels can be installed this fall.
“My understanding is once you get the approval, things can move pretty quickly,” Buhner said.
The system would be put in place at no direct cost to South Colonie taxpayers.
The district has a contract with Monolith Solar Associates of Rensselaer to do the work. The firm would own the system, and the district would pay Monolith a fixed rate for electricity over 20 years of 3.5 cents per kilowatt hour. That is half what the district now pays, a figure that would normally be expected to rise in coming years. The district expects to save $64,000 the first year the system is running.
The Rensselaer firm would install the system free of charge, would maintain it and recoup some of its costs through tax incentives.
NYSERDA is providing about $1.8 million of a cost of about $5.5 million, spokesman Alan Wechsler said.
At a total of 1.7 megawatts, the system would be the largest for a school district in New York state, he said. The next largest is the 1.2 megawatt system in the Queensbury Union Free School District.
The district expects to save $90,000 to $100,000 a year in expenses. For the coming school year, Buhner said, he budgeted a third less to give time for the system to be installed and running.
“The one thing we do know is we’re going to save a lot of money,” he said. “Some of our smaller buildings will produce enough energy for about all their use.”
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