Climate-Resilient Solar Hot Water Systems at Rockaways Firehouses Save NYC Money, Cut Carbon

NRDC by Kit Kennedy April 29, 2014. Solar hot water heating is the redheaded stepchild of the renewable energy world. Most people have no idea what it is. Or, they confuse it with its attention-grabbing cousin, solar photovoltaics, the solar panels we all know about that convert light into electricity and glint on a rapidly increasing number of American roofs.  Despite its obscurity, solar hot water heating is a great technology—cost-effective, pollution-free, climate-resilient. And that’s why we’re celebrating New York City’s recent installation of solar hot water systems on the roofs of five firehouses in the Rockaways section of Queens. All five had been damaged by Hurricane Sandy, with four of them suffering from extensive flooding that required repairs to equipment housed in their basements, including furnaces and boilers.

That’s where solar hot water heating is coming to the rescue. “The firehouses in the Rockaways are ideal sites for solar hot water heating,” explains Kristin Barbato, Deputy Commissioner of the city’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which initiated and financed the project. “Firehouses,” she says, “operate 24-7 and they use a lot of hot water for showers and laundry. The addition of the solar thermal systems makes each facility independent of the need to use natural gas or other fossil fuels to heat water for showers and general use.” In other words, should we face another storm like Sandy, Engine Companies 264, 265, 266, 268, and 329 will have functioning hot water systems when they need them most.

Current solar hot water heaters are based on a technology that’s more than 100 years old. (It was invented in Baltimore, actually, and was quite prevalent in the U.S. before it was supplanted by cheap hot-water heaters that use natural gas.) The heaters rely on a phenomenon we all know from parking cars in un-shaded spots: “Something left out in the sun is going to get hot,” explains Tim Merrigan, a solar hot water expert at theNational Renewable Energy Laboratory. “If you put glazing over it, that’s going to trap the sun’s heat.”  The way the solar hot water heaters on the firehouse roofs work is relatively simple. Water from the building is piped up to the roof and then through a series of panels containing evacuated glass tubes. While inside the panels, the water absorbs the radiant heat of the sun. Then, it’s piped back down to a storage tank in the basement.

The savings, in both energy and carbon pollution, can be considerable. At the city’s St. Mary’s recreation center in the South Bronx, where a solar hot water system provides hot water for showers and the pool, the city is saving $39,000 a year on energy and cutting the complex’s carbon footprint by 141 tons a year—the equivalent of taking 27 cars off the roads.  The firehouse installations aren’t so much one-time events as a pilot program of sorts. “We’re taking steps to see how some technologies that might be newer to city government operations work and potentially expand them out,” says Barbato. The City of New York owns almost 4,000 buildings and other facilities—courthouses, wastewater treatment plants, police and fire stations, schools, hospitals, and libraries. “We’d definitely like to use these resources in other facilities that make sense—facilities with large hot-water usage.”

The work the city has already done in cutting its carbon emissions is nothing short of impressive. Between 2005 and 2012, under Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC, greenhouse gas pollution from New York City government operations dropped by 19 percent, putting the city about two-thirds of the way to its 2030 goal. The new solar water heaters on five Rockaways fire stations are another step toward that important achievement, one that makes the city and its vital first responders more resilient and secure as we go.

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U.K. to be Europe’s largest solar-panel market It would dethrone Germany thanks to growing solar-farm pipeline

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) THE WALL STREET JOURNAL by Claudia Assiss — The United Kingdom will be Europe’s largest solar-panel market this year, thanks to the rapid growth of its solar farms, a market research firm said Monday, dethroning Germany. More than 120 utility-scale solar power plants have been approved for construction in the U.K., and many are targeting completion within the next 12 months, NPD Solarbuzz said in a report. China, Japan, and the U.S. were the top three solar markets in 2013, with Germany fourth and the U.K. rounding up the top five, NPD Solarbuzz said in a research note in March. Analysts had said then they expected a broader shift to Asia as the solar-panel market in India and Thailand grows.The U.K.’s government has set a target of 20 gigawatts of cumulative solar capacity by 2020. Solar power farms will provide the bulk of the contribution. The enthusiasm for solar panels and systems has often failed to translate into a boost for stocks of solar-panel makers. A few Chinese-based manufacturers said earlier this month they expect to sell fewer solar modules in the first quarter than what they forecast, blaming seasonality and company-specific hiccups. Solar stocks were mostly down on Monday, failing to catch any tailwinds from rallying U.S. stocks. U.S. equity markets rose on deal news in the pharmaceutical and telecom sectors and stronger-than-expected pending home sales data.
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New York making $1B investment in solar power

FUEL FIX. AP. April 25, 2014.  ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the state is making a long-term, $1 billion investment in support of solar power.  The Democrat said Thursday that the money will provide funding certainty for efforts to expand solar power over the next decade.  Cuomo says the investment will help the state’s solar power industry to move away from government subsidies.  The money is part of the NY-Sun initiative run by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which is funded mostly through assessments on utilities.  Cuomo’s office says the state has more than 400 solar power companies that together employ 5,000 workers.

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The Tea Party Wants to Help You Go Solar

SLATE. By Josh Voorhees. April 23, 2014.  Photo by David McNew/Getty Images  Last week, with little fanfare and even less debate, Oklahoma lawmakers quietly voted to reverse a nearly four-decade-old law that had barred utility companies from charging customers who install solar panels on their homes more than those who don’t. The bill, which passed almost unanimously, would have effectively cleared the way for utilities in the Sooner State to force homeowners who install solar panels to pay for both the electricity they buy from the grid and for a portion of the electricity they sell back to it. The vote marked a rare victory for power companies in their quest to stymie the growth of the rooftop solar industry. It also represented a sharp departure from the wave of well-publicized, big-dollar federal and state efforts currently aimed at making solar energy cost competitive with more traditional energy sources like coal and natural gas.  TUSK boasts an impressive record of defeating the utility companies’ effort to make solar panels less appealing for homeowners.  Then, on Tuesday, to the surprise of pretty much everyone involved, Oklahoma’s Republican governor, Mary Fallin, issued an executive order largely undercutting the provision, dealing an unexpected defeat to major utilities and their deep-pocketed backers—a group that includes the Koch brothers and the American Legislative Exchange Council, a powerful national membership group for conservative state lawmakers.  Perhaps the only thing more surprising was who had helped defeat Oklahoma’s power companies. Tucked among the usual green suspects were the type of advocates that typically don’t associate with the clean energy movement but have nonetheless proved crucial to securing a political victories in a string of dark-red states: Tea Party conservatives.

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Koch brothers, big utilities attack solar, green energy policies

Las Angeles Times.  By Evan Halper. April 19, 2014.  WASHINGTON — The political attack ad that ran recently in Arizona had some familiar hallmarks of the genre, including a greedy villain who hogged sweets for himself and made children cry.  But the bad guy, in this case, wasn't a fat-cat lobbyist or someone's political opponent.  He was a solar-energy consumer.  Solar, once almost universally regarded as a virtuous, if perhaps over-hyped, energy alternative, has now grown big enough to have enemies.  The Koch brothers, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist and some of the nation's largest power companies have backed efforts in recent months to roll back state policies that favor green energy. The conservative luminaries have pushed campaigns in Kansas, North Carolina and Arizona, with the battle rapidly spreading to other states.  Alarmed environmentalists and their allies in the solar industry have fought back, battling the other side to a draw so far. Both sides say the fight is growing more intense as new states, including Ohio, South Carolina and Washington, enter the fray.  At the nub of the dispute are two policies found in dozens of states. One requires utilities to get a certain share of power from renewable sources. The other, known as net metering, guarantees homeowners or businesses with solar panels on their roofs the right to sell any excess electricity back into the power grid at attractive rates.  Net metering forms the linchpin of the solar-energy business model. Without it, firms say, solar power would be prohibitively expensive.
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World's biggest (2500 hectare) solar thermal power project in construction at Ouarzazate, Morocco

Town of Clay to save about $16,000 a year with solar energy project

SYRACUSE.COM  By Sara Moses.  April 22, 2014. Town of Clay, NY -- The town of Clay unveiled a new solar energy project that will save the town about $16,000 a year on energy costs.  Despite the fact that the sun did not shine this afternoon, Clay Town Supervisor Damian Ulatowski wanted to announce the project today as a celebration of Earth Day. "This is one of the most exciting things the town of Clay has done in a long time," Ulatowski said.  The town installed a 99 kilowatt ground-mount photovoltaic solar array at the town hall and highway garage located at 4401 state Route 31 in Clay. The solar panels will be turned on soon, Ulatowski said. The town began this project in 2013 in partnership with Warner Energy, LLC and funded through a New York State Energy Research and Development Authority grant. The system is comprised of 396 high-efficiency solar panels installed on town property. The 250 watt solar panels and related electrical equipment convert sunlight into power that will be used for lighting and electrical equipment at the town hall and highway building. If the solar array is generating energy in excess of the town's needs, it will be sold back to the grid and used by other utility customers. The solar project costs $326,686. NYSERDA is funding $181,343 and the remaining costs are funded by Warner Energy. No Clay town tax dollars are being used in the project, Ulatowski said. Warner Energy owns, operates and maintains the system, he said. Ulatowski said the town has contracted to use the solar power for 20 years. Ulatowski said the town will save about $16,000 a year on energy costs, but the actual savings is unknown at this time. The town will monitor the savings throughout the year and report it to the taxpayers.