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.

Check out this awesome video from the Wall St Journal about Solar One’s Green Design Lab program in the NYC Public schools! You can also read the article HERE at WSJ Online.

Big thanks to the NYC DOE and to all the partners and funders who have helped us this program a success. And congratulations to the Education Team on their incredible work!

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.

How can smart co-ops and condos turn pressure to “go green” into an opportunity to reduce costs and comply with new codes?

Solar One and the Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums (CNYC) are hosting another Intro to Green workshop for co-ops and condos at 7:00pm on October 13. This two-hour workshop will present cost-effective ways to reduce energy expenses and have a healthier, greener building; details on the NYSERDA Multifamily Performance Program for energy efficiency retrofits and financing; an overview of new green laws and code changes; and strategies for engaging owners in the greening process.

Date: Thursday, October 13, 2011
Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: New York Society for Ethical Culture
2 W. 64th Street, New York, NY 10023
Register

If your building wants to go green but doesn’t know where to start, this is the workshop for you. We hope to see you there! See below for how to register, or check out the Intro to Green website to learn more. Pre-registration is required due to limited space.

This workshop is free for residents of CNYC member buildings. If your building is a CNYC member, please register by contacting CNYC at (212) 496-7400 or info@cnyc.coop. For questions about the workshop, call Solar One at (212) 785-0734 or email jeff@solar1.org.

There is a $30 fee for non-CNYC members. Please sign up by clicking here.

Taken together, these upgraded technologies are known as the smart grid. In August, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), the non-profit organization that manages New York’s electricity grid and administers the state’s wholesale electricity markets, unveiled a $74 million initiative to upgrade New York’s electricity grid with new smart grid technologies.

Backed by more than $37 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, these technologies will improve the efficiency of the state’s bulk transmission system and improve grid operators’ visualization capabilities and situational awareness. NYISO also held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new $35.5 million primary power control center in Rensselaer County.

What does it all mean?

New Yorkers will save money. New capacitor banks will reduce electricity costs in New York State approximately $9 million per year by reducing the amount of electricity that is lost when carried over long distances on the bulk transmission system. All told, the upgrades will provide New York with approximately $190 million in annual savings.

Power reliability will improve. New phaser measurement units will improve NYISO’s ability to receive, process and monitor changing conditions, which it does on a moment-to-moment basis, 24 hours per day. Ultimately, NYISO hopes to integrate its smart grid with others across the Northeast and Canada, which could help avoid potential outages, such as the 2003 blackout.

Renewable energy will get a boost. The smart grid upgrades and new power control center will aid the integration of renewable energy supplies, such as solar and wind, into the power supply.

To learn more, visit the NYISO website, read its press release or check out the NYS Smart Grid Consortium overview.

120 years and one symposium later, solar powered hot water heating systems may finally be getting the attention they deserve in New York City. Since their invention in 1891 by American businessman Clarence Kemp, Americans on the whole  have been very slow and reluctant in adopting renewable energy water heating systems. However, that has not stopped solar hot water systems from becoming extremely popular in China and Europe; Germany, according to EarthKind Solar’s Ron Kamen, installs as many as 200,000 systems a year.

Fortunately, New York City may be just the city to put solar hot water systems back on the map for Americans. Executives from Quixotic Systems Inc., EarthKind Solar, and Sunnovations reported that the existing technology functions excellently in New York City’s temperate climate –especially atop buildings that have flat roofs and are 13 stories or lower (the majority of buildings in the city). In addition, building owners and managers such as Peter Bourbeau, of PWB Management Corporation, described how installing solar hot water systems in two of his rental buildings have lowered fuel oil expenses as much as 30 percent.

So should New Yorkers expect to see their neighbors tossing out their rusty old hot water heaters in exchange for shiny, green, solar powered systems? Perhaps not immediately, but progress is definitely underway: CEC is assembling a task force to follow through on the issues that the symposium raised.

As a result, we are extending the deadline for completed applications to be submitted to June 10th at 5:00pm.  All applications will need to be e-mailed or faxed to us by that time.  You can learn more and download the application and instructions at our Green Design Lab site here. Any questions should be directed to gdl@solar1.org and we will do our best to respond within 24 hours. We look forward to working with another great batch of schools starting this fall.

Last week, the program got some nice coverage from the Manhattan Times – a bilingual newspaper serving Inwood and Washington Heights in upper Manhattan. The article focuses on our work with PS 187 in Washington Heights where Solar One educators have been helping students save energy as part of the Green Cup Challenge and create the beginnings of a rooftop garden to reduce cooling costs for the building.

PS 187 students load soil into jean planters to be used in the rooftop garden for their school.

The program has been a rousing success and we are thankful to see such a warm write-up of the program and its accomplishments. We are already gearing up to implement the program in more schools during 2011-12.  If you are interested in bringing the program to your or your children’s school next year, you can download the application from the Green Design Lab site, or click here to download it in PDF or MSWord format.

—

Multifamily Building Analyst Training & BPI Exam

Nine Wednesday Evening Classes, April – June 2011
Dates: April 27, May 4,11,18,25, June 1,8,15, 22
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Get the BPI Certification you need, and still get to work!
If you are an energy professional working in multifamily buildings or just want to learn more about energy audits in multifamily buildings, this is the certification for you. GreenHomeNYC is bringing in one of the people that helped develop this certification, at a schedule that meets your work schedule, so that you can be certified by BPI as a
Multifamily Building Analyst.

$1600 Fee includes BPI Certification exam fee.
A non-refundable deposit of 25% is required to hold your seat in the class – please pay via credit card or check.  Additional details available at greenhomenyc.org/bpi.

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.

Back by popular demand!

Solar One Energy Connections, NYSERDA Energy $mart Communities and the Council of New York Cooperatives and Condos (CNYC) have just announced the next Intro To Green for Co-ops and Condos course for April 6, 7-9pm, at The New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 West 64th Street at Central Park West. Doors open at 6:30pm.

This two-hour workshop will:

• Present easy ways to reduce energy costs and have a healthier, greener building
• Provide details on the new NYSERDA Multifamily Performance Program for comprehensive energy efficiency retrofits
• Give an overview of new green laws and code changes
• Offer guidance on complying with the May 1st Bench marking requirements for buildings of 50,000 square feet or larger
• Share strategies for engaging owners in the greening process

There is no cost for CNYC members to attend this workshop, but advanced registration is required. Reserve your place by calling CNYC at (212) 496-7400 or by emailing workshops@CNYC.coop.

Non-CNYC members are welcome! Please preregister and pay the $30 course fee by clicking here (or visiting http://co.clickandpledge.com/advanced/default.aspx?wid=40722).

For more information about this and other Intro To Green courses, please visit solar1.org/i2g.

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.

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.

Our very own NYSERDA Energy $mart Communities Coordinator, Sara Jayanthi, will be on hand in the morning to educate the attendees on how to access information about NYSERDA incentives and other energy efficiency tips.

Community Access to Green Technology
Friday, December 17
11am-4pm
The Armory Foundation 216 Fort Washington Avenue @ 168th St.
Contact: 212.568.4396

Learn how to access the web and internet. Join NoMAA and participate in a raffle for a computer!

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

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

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: