Click on the image above to explore this fascinating interactive map of energy use by building across the city. Usage was calculated statistically, based on this study on spatial distribution of urban energy consumption (in other words, no utility records or private information was used). Congratulations to Professor Vijay Modi and PhD student Bianca Howard of the Modi Research Group at Columbia- the map’ been featured in the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal and CNET.

Starting January 30, New Yorkers will be able to conveniently finance energy-efficient upgrades to their homes through a charge on their electric bill. On average, this charge will be less than the money saved by the improvements, so participants should not see their bills rise on a yearly basis. And if you act soon, you won’t have any payments due until June 2012.

This is the new On-Bill Recovery Loan Program, which we explained in November. The program will be available to homeowners who are customers of Central Hudson Gas and Electric, Con Edison, Long Island Power Authority, New York State Electric and Gas Corporation, National Grid (upstate NY customers only), Orange and Rockland, and Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation. The program will soon be offered to small businesses, not-for-profits, and multifamily building owners, although it is not yet available for these groups.

NYSERDA recently released the details of the On-Bill Recovery program, which offers lower interest rates than its current financing programs.  For a rundown of the newly released details and an explanation of how the program will benefit you, continue reading after the jump.

Directed by Cambria Matlow and Morgan Robinson and originally screened in collaboration with Rooftop Films and IFP, the film tells the story of 26-year-old Daniel Dembele, who decides to return to his homeland in Mali and start a local business building solar panels.  As it follows his progress from startup to viable business, the film touches on themes of climate change, poverty, and African self-sufficiency.  Check out the trailer:

Congratulations to Cambria and Morgan on getting their film in front of a nationwide audience! Also check out our update from March that features a 7-minute video by Morgan called “Burning In The States” focusing on the efforts of local NYC students building small-scale projects.

The money awarded by the DOE is for SunShot NY, a two-phase $3.4 million dollar plan that aims to increase the accessibility and affordability of solar for New York City residents by driving down administrative costs.

Phase 1 will shorten NYC’s approval process for solar installations by creating an online multi-agency permit tracking portal. Development of the portal will involve the support and collaboration of 30 organizations that are part of the solar industry, including utility companies, installers, government agencies, and industry leaders. Once completed, it will remove delays in city installations, cutting down the permitting processes from one year to 100 days. These changes will significantly increase the rate of new solar installations in NYC.

For more information on the award, you can read the press release here. You can also check out the DOE’s page about the Rooftop Solar Challenge, where you can see info about the other 22 award winners.

Join us this Wednesday for the 6th event of Solar One’s and NYC ACRE’s cleantech discussion series Clean Energy Connections: EVs in NYC: What Roll-out Strategies Work Best for the Big Apple?

Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011 7:00pm-9:00pm (doors open at 6:30p)
The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WNYC
44 Charlton Street, New York, NY 10014
General Admission: $25, Students: $10

Register for your advanced tickets here
A limited number of tickets will be available at the door.

New York City has the nation’s largest hybrid vehicle fleet and the best access to public transportation in the United States. City officials and Con Edison are planning for widespread adoption of electric vehicles and its impact on the electric grid. This event will focus on fleet-based approaches for electric vehicles, charging infrastructure challenges, and what this roll-out means for grid-scale storage and reliability issues.

A networking reception will follow the panel discussion and audience Q&A.

Opening Speakers:
- Christina Ficicchia, Executive Director, New York City and Lower Hudson Valley Clean Communities
- Keith Kerman, Deputy Commissioner, New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS); New York City’s first Chief Fleet Officer

Panelists:

- Brian Asparro, Chief Financial Officer, Green Charge Networks
- John Shipman, Department Manager, Electric Vehicle Programs, Con Edison
- Brett Gipe, Regional Sales Director, Eastern U.S. & Canada, Smith Electric Vehicles
- Anatol Feygin, Vice President, Energy Strategist, Loews Corporation

Moderator:
- David Leeds, Senior Manager, Smart Grid Research, Greentech Media

Can’t make it? Greentech Media is the media sponsor for this series and will host a free live web stream of this event at www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/evs-in-nyc-what-roll-out-strategies-work-best-for-the-big-apple. Questions for the panelists and comments can be submitted via Twitter@CleanECNYC, #CleanNRGx.

EVs in NYC is a part of the cleantech discussion series Clean Energy Connections. Clean Energy Connections is a program of Solar One and NYC ACRE at NYU-Poly that brings together professionals, policymakers, investors and academia to explore major topics shaping NYC’s blossoming cleantech industry, and provides an expert forum to share best practices and new inspirations.

April 14, 2011 from 7-9pm

Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, 44 Charlton Street (at Varick Street), New York, NY, 10014.

A networking reception will follow the event.

General admission is $25, and student admission is $10. Advanced registration is required at www.cleanecnyc.org.

Panelists:

• David Bragdon, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability
• KC Sahl, NY Project Director for NRG Bluewater Wind
• Jacob Susman, CEO of OWN Wind Energy
• Russell Tencer, CEO of Wind Products, Inc., a recent graduate of the NYC ACRE incubator

Clean Energy Connections is sponsored by NYSERDA and Con Edison’s Commercial & Industrial Energy Efficiency Programs; Greentech Media is the media sponsor for this series.

Green Mountain Energy wants to be your friend, and clean electricity supplier! For the month of April- commonly known these days as Earth Month- when you “like” Green Mountain Energy on Facebook, you can vote for your choice of 3 local nonprofits- Earth Day NY, Riverkeeper and Solar One- to receive a share of $5,000.

Here’s how:

Visit www.facebook.com/greenmountainenergycompany;

“Like” them;

Click on NY and vote for Solar One! It’s that easy!

SAVE THE DATE:

Future Metropolis Volume III
“Water in New York”
May 8, 2011
5-7pm
University Settlement
184 Eldridge Street
New York, NY 10002

Tickets on sale in Early April

Future Metropolis Volume III: “Water in New York” is part of the
New Museum’s Festival of Ideas for The New City,
running May 4-8, 2011.
For more information about the festival, please visit:
http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/

New York City The Future Metropolis is an ongoing series of events focused on creative thinkers who are using their expertise to make New York City a more sustainable place to live, work, and do business. Each event is an exciting, fast-paced showcase of pioneering ideas and cutting-edge research, presented in a way that both inspires innovation in green industry professionals and remains accessible to the general public.

The theme of the next installment in the series will be “Water in New York.” This theme will cover the water bodies surrounding the city, the ways that water gets used in the city, and the cultural significance of water to New York. The speakers will cover a wide range of topics that relate to water, for example: harbor ecology, rain/grey water harvesting, green infrastructure, the impact of hydrofracking on NYC’s water supply, creating an innovative waterfront, designing landscapes and buildings with water in mind, learning from and on the water, and art created with or in response to NYC’s water.

What will NYC look like in twenty years? Will our city become more sustainable and efficient with the resources it consumes as its population reaches nine million in 2030?  Is green really the new black – as in the new norm – for New Yorkers?

We New Yorkers can do a lot to live up to the green potential offered by the history, the geography, and the ingenuity of our city. Sustainability is not a goal but a process, and in order to be most effective, it should shift all aspects of society onto a greener course. From projects affecting the whole city, like the smart electric grid, to small adjustments to personal habits, like recycling, change for the greener must be systemic in order for sustainability to take root in New York.

The systems that run New York – or any other city – are not just physical entities. They are best identified by asking not “What?” but “How?” For example, the question, “What can make our building systems more resource efficient?” can be answered simply: “Do an energy audit and fix the problems that are found.” However, if we ask, “How do we stop the building from being wasteful from now on?” the answer becomes a lot broader: “We do an audit, fix the building, teach the owner, the operators, and the tenants how to use it properly, and establish protocols for checking that everything is running smoothly from now on.” That second answer shows that to fix our carbon problem we need to establish new systems, both hard and soft infrastructures for living and working in a more sustainable way.

The ideas for smarter, cheaper, and more environmentally responsible methods to run a city like New York should inform the evolution of existing infrastructures or establish the necessary new ones. Infrastructures, by definition, have a broad reach, from the generation and delivery of electricity to getting rid of waste water; from food supply to waste disposal; from growing our businesses to deconstructing our buildings; from teaching our future designers, engineers, and other creative professionals to incorporate the triple bottom line into their visions of the future, to preparing the workforce for making those creative visions come to life in a way that works. And perhaps most important of all is the infrastructure offered by our growing collective certainty that we can achieve our goals in a smarter, cheaper, and yet more environmentally responsible way.

In trying to catch a glimpse of the transformation of New York over the next twenty years, we at Solar One decided to put together an evening with the experts who are currently working on developing new (or improving old) infrastructures. Whatever our city looks like and however it functions in twenty years, right now we can only see it through the lens of today’s innovative ideas and discoveries. However, concrete plans have already been put forth by the city government, starting with PlaNYC to give the framework for moving New York towards sustainability. More specific objectives have been set forth in city-wide governmental plans as well as smaller scale private-sector and academic projects. Examples of such forward-looking projects include water quality management through green infrastructure; waterfront revitalization and improving the city’s sustainable food supply through short-sea shipping; and creating ecological art both as a form of expression and means to raise public awareness.

The speakers invited to NYC Future Metropolis vol. 2 will address these and other infrastructure-related topics directly and in discussion of their projects. Please visit the NYC The Future Metropolis section for more information.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Green Screens program and Solar One Co-Present Carbon Nation at the Walter Reade Theater on Thursday, February 10 at 6:30pm

Screening followed by a Q&A with the director Peter Byck, Solar One Executive Director Chris Collins, Solar One Green Workforce Development Director Diallo Shabazz, and a reception.

On Thursday February 10, Solar One is proud to be co-presenting the film Carbon Nation with the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Green Screens program at the beautiful Walter Reade Theater. Carbon Nation is a film by Peter Byck that explores potential alternatives to carbon fuel from one-armed Texas cotton farmer Cliff Etheridge’s efforts to pull together an enormous wind farm, to green jobs innovator Van Jones. This inspiring film presents vital solutions to a thorny problem and in the process reveals a thriving tradition of American ingenuity.

Friends of Solar One may purchase tickets at the $9 Affiliate price, a $3 discount off the general admission price. Film Society members purchase tickets at the $7 Member price. A great bargain for a great film!

Purchase tickets online by selecting the “Affiliate” ticket type HERE.

You can use this link that goes straight to the online purchase page for CARBON NATION:
http://www.filmlinc.com/tix.php?p=22298&b=1

Or purchase in person at the Walter Reade Theater’s Box Office:
The box office opens at 12:30 PM Monday-Friday, and one half hour before the first screening on Saturday/Sunday. It closes every day 15 minutes after the start of the last show. If there are no evening screenings, the box office closes at 6pm. For more information call 212-875-5601 during hours of operation.

IMPORTANT: Please printout this page! You will need to present the printout at the Walter Reade Theater Box office to purchase tickets or redeem an online order at this discount price.

Visit FilmLinc.com for more information about Carbon Nation. http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/gs/carbonnation.html

View the trailer for the film: http://carbonnationmovie.com/

Thursday, February 10 at 6:30pm
The Film Society of Lincoln Center
Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th Street, Upper Level
Bet Broadway & Amsterdam Aves

Do you ever wonder what New York City will look like in 20 years? If so, please join us on February 17 at 7pm for the second NYC The Future Metropolis event, an exciting, fast-paced look at some of the new technologies, projects, and ideas that are shaping the future of our city.

Volume II of this series will explore the physical infrastructures and shifting networks of ideas that are enabling the green transformation of NYC.  The invited speakers will address topics such as the smart electric grid, NYC food supply, and the importance of human capital to the greening of our business, buildings, and society.

Thursday, February 17, 7pm
The Educational Alliance
197 East Broadway, Mazer Theater, NYC

Click here for directions.

Reserve your spot by registering now! $5 per person (through Click & Pledge). $10 cash at the door.

No more free spots available via MeetUp RSVPs, but you can still buy tickets online or at the door. And you can always RSVP on our MeetUp page to stay informed about future events! www.meetup.com/Solar-One-Energy-Connections/

Please visit the full NYC Future Metropolis website for profiles on the speakers.

As 2010 comes to a close, great news comes in from DC! With the passage of the Federal Tax bill, President Obama also signed an extension of Section 1603, the renewable energy Tax Grant Program.

This extension is a boon for businesses that want to put up renewable energy on their property. Currently, a commercial entity interested in installing a renewable energy system is eligible for a 30% federal tax credit on all expenditures related to the installation. This tax credit, by the way, is called the Business Energy Investment Tax Credit (ITC). Section 1603 is super cool because it allows the entity to receive that 30% federal tax credit as a cash grant.  Since its launch in 2009, this program has been incredibly successful and, to date, has helped encourage more than 4,000 clean energy projects.

Section 1603 is only available to businesses who install one of the qualified renewable energy sources, which include solar, small wind, fuel cells, microturbines, and Combined Heat and Power. There are size and financial caps for each technology, so read the IRS’s literature about the program before you start your renewable energy project.

If you have a company in New York and are interested in installing renewable energy, now is the time to do it! In addition to the federal tax program, NY state also has a host of financial incentives for renewables available through the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

For more information about Section 1603, check out the IRS website.
There is also a really great write-up about the program from Green Tech Media.

For more information about NYSERDA’s programs, you can contact one of the Energy $mart Communities Coordinators, whose contact info is here.

You can also check out NYSERDA’s Renewable Energy website: PowerNaturally.org.

Award-winning director and producer Alan Blake traveled cross-country, from Massachusetts to California, visiting the people that use solar power or work in the industry. The Solar Generation USA Road Trip campaign chronicles his three-week trip as a three-part online webisode series to educate the public on the benefits of solar energy.

Webisode No. 1 focuses on the Northeast capturing smaller residential and commercial applications, from a boat marina, fire station and horse farm, to a New York City rooftop and the Crayola Crayon manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania. Webisode No. 2 captures installations in the Midwest including a zoo (with ‘solar bears’), a gas station converted to a solar charging station for electric vehicles, the Ohio Governor’s mansion and a solar manufacturing facility. The last webisode (Webisode No. 3) covers larger scale solar in the West including Denver International Airport, a Garbett Homes community with both solar water heating and solar electric as standard features, Colorado State University, the ballpark of the 2010 World Series champions, the San Francisco Giants, and a Napa Valley vineyard.

Check it out and pass it on:  www.solargenerationusa.org

Block Island has no electrical connection to the mainland and the electricity on the island comes mostly from diesel generators.  This makes their electricity rates among the highest anywhere.  There are plans to build an offshore wind farm to help supply electricity to the island, though they are currently hung up in a legal battle.  This means that Block Island is particularly ripe for solar development, since the incentives available and the high cost of energy will combine to reduce the payback period significantly.  We hope Sarah will update us as the project progresses.

Solar One has partnered with Superintendents Technical Association (STA) to reach building operators in New York City and provide them with an “Intro to Green”. Although targeted towards superintendents, property managers and coop board members could also benefit from this technical seminar.

On Monday, October 18th from 6-9pm, a new three-hour course will introduce the concept of green and how it relates to buildings in New York City.

This introductory course will help building operators, property managers, and coop boards manage their buildings in a more energy efficient and cost-effective way. The course will orient building stakeholders in green terminology and concepts; review NYC’s new green laws for existing buildings; discuss NYSERDA incentives available for New York buildings; and determine if future education and/or certifications may be right for the attendees.

For more information or to register, please visit nycsta.org

Monday, October 18th, 6-9pm
230 E 90th St.
Pre-register: $55.00
STA Member & non-members: $65.00 at the door

For more information, contact Mary Tchamkina at Solar One:
646-576-5663
mary@solar1.org

About a month ago, Solar One hosted climate organization 350.org as the NYC stop on their Solar Road Trip, an attempt by 350.org founder Bill McKibben and a group of students from Unity College in Maine to convince the White House to return one of the solar thermal panels that Jimmy Carter installed to the roof of the White House. The initial administration response was pretty chilly, and the students were disappointed that their request wasn’t taken more seriously.Here’s a picture of the vintage panel, signed by all the people who attended the Solar Road Trip events in Maine, Boston, New York and DC:

But now the White House has reversed their position, and, as reported here on the NY Times Green blog, will be installing both a solar PV and a solar thermal system on the roof at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Here’s part of Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s statement:

“This project reflects President Obama’s strong commitment to U.S. leadership in solar energy and the jobs it will create here at home,” Secretary Chu said in a statement. “Deploying solar energy technologies across the country will help America lead the global economy for years to come.”

This news comes at a great time, as 350.org’s 10/10/10 Global Work Party to address climate change kicks off this Sunday. To find an event near you, check the 350.org Invitation page. And congratulations to 350.org, Bill McKibben and especially the students at Unity!

On Saturday September 11, we’ll be kicking off the 2010 Solar-Powered Film Series as the NYC stop on Rooftop Films Gasland tour.

This will be a rare ticketed event, tickets are $10 and can be purchased on the Rooftop Films website. If there are still tickets available on the day of the event, they will be available to purchase at the door. Solar One will not be selling tickets, but we’ll try and update as we get closer to the date and let people know if/when the show sells out.

Tickets are $10, available HERE!

New energy efficiency legislation that will drastically impact your building is fast approaching and you don’t want to be caught unprepared.  Join us for an interactive session with leaders in the field of energy efficiency.  Learn how you can take advantage of these required changes, and benefit from cost saving measures.  You will also hear about all of the potential funding and financing opportunities available to help with project costs.

June 17, 2010, 6:00-8:00pm,

followed by networking a reception

Sony Wonder Technology Lab Auditorium

550 Madison Ave (at 56th St.)

PANELISTS

Representative from the City of New York:  NYC Green Building Codes

Kate Grossman, Greenwich Energy Solutions:  Energy Audits and Qualifying Buildings

Brett Greenberg, Bovis Lend Lease:  Implementing Energy Efficiency Measures

David Gibson, Lutron:  Advanced Lighting Technologies

Cliff Schorer, Greenwich Energy Solutions: Financing Options

Diana Pangestu, Solar One:  NYSERDA Incentives and Case Study

Seminar Cost:  $25

To register, click on the following link: