Go Green Expo a Success
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
April 26-27 -This past weekend Go Green Expo was held at the Hilton Hotel in New York. Three floors of booths with eco friendly products and non-profit organizations concerned about the environment were host to thousands of visitors.
Chris Neidl, Solar One’s Outreach Coordinator and Director of our 
I <3 PV campaign gave a seminar to dozens of enthusiastic New Yorkers.
At the booth, a solar powered laptop was running on a mobile charger built by students from Manhattan Comprehensive Day/Night School. (Visitors could charge their iPods, cell phones and computers, as well.)
Visitors were very impressed by the students who were on hand to explain the campaign. And he laptop provided a live link to legislators so that voters could write directly to their elected officials, urging support for solar energy in New York.
Also, TrulightTM CFL light bulbs were being sold at the booth. We discovered that many attendees have already switched their light bulbs and are part of saving energy in NYC.
Stuyvesant Cover Park was displayed in all its verdant and flowery beauty in a photo power point show enticing volunteers for the Park.
All in all, many more New Yorkers have been informed about Solar One and it’s programs. A great success!
Posted in Solar One | Permalink
American Beaver Spotted Near Solar One
Monday, April 21st, 2008
On the occasion of Pope Benedict’s visit this weekend, NYC Harbor and Scuba police were patrolling the area near the UN, about 20 blocks north of Solar One, when a beaver graced their view of the East River. Apparently struggling to stay afloat, the four foot-long, 40 lb. rodent was rushed to an UWS animal hospital but unfortunately died en route to a specialist in Utica.
Although the cause of death is still unknown, doctors suspect that she was already in bad shape before hitting the inhospitably salty waters of the East River, a tidal strait connecting the New York Harbor with the Long Island Sound. As beavers are fresh-water creatures, she likely drifted into the estuary from the Bronx River, where beavers may be in the process of re-establishing colonies.
This marked only the second confirmed beaver sighting in New York City since the early 1800s. The first beaver, José (pictured), was photographed in early 2007 after building a 12-foot lodge in the Bronx River. He was nicknamed after US Representative José E. Serrano, who has led a major initiative to revive the health of that river. More information on the efforts of Serrano and others can be found here.
Posted in East River, New York City, Solar One | Permalink
Earth Day New York Party Tomorrow Night at the Park!
Monday, April 21st, 2008
Posted in Solar One | Permalink
Plant Profile - Stuyvesant Cove Park
Friday, April 18th, 2008
(Caption: Virginia Bluebells, Mertensia virginica)
A native plant of New York, Virginia Bluebells is a wonderful addition to Stuyvesant Cove Park. It is one of just a few plants blooming in the park this week. It usually blooms in early to mid April depending on the weather. Virginia Bluebells is a recent addition to the flora in Stuyvesant Cove park. It was planted in the spring of 2006 with the high hopes that the following spring it would showcase it’s beauty. We waited a whole year and sure enough in spring 2007 we had a modest showing of small but brilliant blue flowers. Once again in the spring of 2007, having had some success with the previous years plants, we decided to plant even more. That ended up being a wise decision because this year they have really flourished. We have large groupings with vivid displays of it’s periwinkle blue flowers, making a striking display at the North entrance to the park.
Mertensia virginica is classified as a perennial. It’s leaf and flowering period are ephemeral lasting only about 2-3 months. After its brief show, the leaves and flowers die back and do not reappear till the following spring. Mertensia virginica typically grows in moist woodland forests and bottomlands, and does fairly well in wetland areas too.
There is not much care required to grow this plant successfully. Moist rich soil, partial sun, and little to no foot traffic. The plant is extremely vulnerable to foot traffic and can result in lost blooms which, considering the length of it’s performance, are very valuable. So it would be best planted away from pathways or edges of flower beds. The plant usually reaches a height of 18 inches.
Posted in Native Plants, Solar One, Stuyvesant Cove Park | Permalink
NYCares Volunteers in Stuyvesant Cove Park
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
On April 12, 2008 volunteers from NY Cares, one of New York City’s largest volunteer organizations, came to lend a helping hand in Stuyvesant Cove Park as part of their Hands on New York Day. Hands on NY is an annual event put on by NYCares to assist city parks, community gardens, nonprofit organizations, and homeless shelters revitalize their sites. With over 6,000 volunteers participating at over 100 sites, this years event has been the most successful in the 14 years of hosting the event.
Volunteers at Stuyvesant Cove Park came from Sidley Austin, a large international law firm. The project for the day was to lay down Fibar woodchips on the walking paths throughout the park. Fibar is engineered wood fibers that knit together to form a surface soft enough to cushion falls, yet firm enough for wheelchairs. As part of the original design of the park, all pathways need to be wheelchair accessible so that everyone can enjoy all parts of the park.
The volunteers from Sidley Austin were amazing. The day started at 9:30 with about 15 volunteers hauling mulch into the park. By the end of the day, 2:30 or so, the volunteers completed more than half the park, much more than initially anticipated. Their help and hard work is truly appreciated.
Posted in Other Events, Solar One, Stuyvesant Cove Park | Permalink
Look out for Solar One’s new Mobile Solar Chargers - coming to your neighborhood soon!
Monday, April 14th, 2008
This past Saturday, Solar One was a flurry of solar-building activity. A group of 17 Manhattan Comprehensive High School students, all participants in Solar One’s new I Heart PV street team, assembled three mobile solar chargers. The units are to be used in outreach activities all around the city to help promote stronger solar policies in NYC, as part of Solar One’s new I Heart PV campaign. Mounted on metal hand trucks and small enough to take on the subway, the units will allow the students to give a simple live solar demonstration - cell phone and laptop charging - to interested passers-by in neighborhoods throughout the city.
The students did a phenomenal job assembling the three separate units, and did so with great speed, ingenuity and hard work. For many, it was their first time ever using an electric drill or tape measurer. But you would have never known that by the end of the day, with the students wielding each like seasoned pros. Solar One commends and thanks them!
The charger’s design is the brainchild of Elliott Montgomery, a NYC-based industrial designer and Solar One’s new best friend. Elliott, who holds a BA in ID from Carnegie Mellon University, focuses on projects that use experiential design to investigate and facilitate behavioral change by creating connections between user relevance and physical objects. The PV chargers embody this principle by giving New York pedestrians the opportunity to (serendipitously) interact and test out a functional solar panel, before hearing from our team of Manhattan Comprehensive interns just how well solar could work in the five boroughs. . . . if the right policies are put in place to foster it’s development. Pushing for such policies on the state level is the mission of Solar One’s I Heart PV campaign.
The chargers will make their first expedition this weekend at Grand Central Station’s Earth Day New York festival, and after that, can be found all around the city in busy pedestrian areas throughout the spring and summer. If you are interested in finding out more about the chargers, their comings and goings, the Manhattan Comprehensive street team, or the I Heart PV campaign, please contact campaign coordinator, Chris Neidl.
Posted in Solar One | Permalink
The Green Design Lab Final Project Presentation
Thursday, April 10th, 2008| April 18, 2008 | ||
| 5:00 pm | to | 6:30 pm |
Join students from Manhattan Comprehensive Night and Day School as they present the final projects from a class called the Green Design Lab. The projects investigate how to green their school building through sustainable design techniques. A brief presentation, poster series and 3D models of these sustainability strategies will be shown throughout the evening. Open to community members, family and friends, this reception is meant to stimulate a dialogue about how to green NYC’s public schools through innovative green design and student involvement.
The Green Design Lab, a joint project between Solar One: Green Energy, Arts and Education Center and Manhattan Comprehensive Night and Day School was initiated fall 2007 to explore issues of sustainability through the lens of design, architecture and sustainable technology.
For more information, go to www.solar1.org/education.
Friday, April 18th | 5 - 6:30pm
The Center for Architecture
536 LaGuardia Place, New York, NY
Refreshments will be served!
Posted in Education, Energy Efficiency, Green Building, New York City, Solar One, Solar One Events | Permalink
NYT: Mayor Bloomberg Turns Attention To Solar Power
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
Just one day after Albany’s refusal to support congestion pricing, Mayor Michael Bloomberg reaffirmed his strong support for increased solar power deployment in NYC in a keynote address delivered at Newsweek’s second annual Global Environmental Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C.
Next week will mark the year anniversary of the release of PlaNYC, the Mayor’s ambitious longterm sustainability blueprint for development and planning in the five boroughs over the next two decades. While congestion pricing was the component of the plan that certainly garnered the greatest amount of attention over the past 12 months, the proposal was one of over 120 separate recommendations that were introduced in the plan and which pertain to key infrastructure, environmental and quality of life-related categories including transportation, open space development, air and water quality, energy use and climate change.
Counted among the plan’s energy recommendations are some visionary and potentially high-impact policy measures intended to induce solar photovoltaic development in the five boroughs. These include a property tax abatement for solar system owners; the investigation of new varying electricity rate structures favorable to solar deployment (i.e. “real time pricing”); as well as Solar One’s own project to construct Solar 2, a state-of-the-art solar-powered learning and cultural center to be located at our current site in Stuyvesant Cove Park.
As reported by Sewell Chan on the New York Times’ City Room Blog, the Mayor’s address yesterday focused on the City’s plan to install 2 MW of solar PV on 11 public buildings in the near term. This amount would roughly double the amount of solar - private and public - that New York currently has online, and would help galvanize the local market.
(The recommendations can be viewed on pages 112 and 113 of the PlaNYC report, which can be downloaded, here.)
Solar One’s new I Heart PV campaign, which is pushing for stronger solar policies in New York State through grassroots citizen engagement, will launch a series of activities to forward its immediate goals beginning next weekend - exactly one year after the initial release of PlaNYC. The Mayor’s bold solar recommendations - in particular the property tax abatement mentioned above - are included among a number of policy proposals that the campaign seeks to realize. The I Heart PV web page, to be hosted on this site, will be up and running by next week. Stay tuned and be in touch if you or anyone you know is interested in getting involved in the effort.
If you are interested in hosting an informative free, 1-hour workshop in your community about solar’s potential in NYC and the I Heart PV campaign’s current goals, please contact campaign organizer Chris Neidl (neidl@solar1.org).
Posted in Solar One | Permalink
Stuyvesant Cove Park Volunteer Day A Great Success!
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
[caption: Volunteers Wendy Byrne, Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, Hannelore Breuer]
On March 29th Solar One kicked off spring 2008 with its first volunteer day in Stuyvesant Cove Park. The day started at 9:00am with coffee donated by Starbucks and guest speaker Claudia Joseph, from The Old Stone House, who spoke to the volunteers about permaculture . After the lecture volunteers were assigned tasks in the park. New volunteers partnered with seasoned ones to cut back last seasons grasses and perennials and to weed unwanted plants in preparation for this season’s new growth.
In total there were over 20 volunteers that came out to help on Saturday, of which 2 were new to the park. The volunteers were also surprised to see their Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, who represents the 74th Assembly District, put on a pair of work gloves and volunteer his time to help in the park clean up day.
The day ended at 12:30pm with pizza and soda provided by the Stuyvesant Cove Park Association. If you are interested in participating in the next volunteer day or becoming a regular park volunteer, please contact us.
Posted in East River, Native Plants, New York City, Solar One, Stuyvesant Cove Park | Permalink
New York City Council Supports Congestion Pricing Plan, 30-20. . . . Now, on to Albany.
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
Last night the New York City Council endorsed Mayor Bloomberg’s Congestion Pricing proposal by a margin of ten votes. The plan, which would introduce a charge on automobile commutes to and within Manhattan’s central business district, is designed to curb congestion, cut commute times, help finance mass transit expansion, improve air quality and create more pedestrian-friendly streetscapes. (For an overview of the policy’s makeup and benefits, please take a look at Transportation Alternative’s excellent synopsis.)
Approval by the City Council was a precondition imposed by the State Legislature last June when the original plan made it’s first trip to Albany. The Legislature must now endorse the plan by next Monday April 7th if the City is to be eligible for $354 million in federal funds for mass transit improvements. While Governor James Paterson and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno have expressed their full support for congestion pricing, support in the State Assembly, from the top down, appears more tenuous, making it likely that the plan’s fate will ultimately lie in that body.
To find out who your Assembly Member is and how to contact them, visit the New York Board of Election’s interactive website.
Posted in Solar One | Permalink
