A New Year’s Message About Climate Change - Act Quickly

Bill McKibben Has A New Year’s Message About Climate Change — Act Quickly

January 1st, 2019 by Steve Hanley | Clean Technica

Bill McKibben has been writing about climate change for 30 years. Along the way, he has been arrested multiple times, spat on, had his life threatened, and been spied on by minions working for fossil fuel companies. Oh, he also founded 350.org, whose stated mission is to keep the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere below 350 parts per million. The world blew by that benchmark some time ago and is racing toward the 450 ppm level.

He has written almost 30 books on the subject, including The End Of Nature in 1989 and Oil & Honey in 2013. If you want to be fully informed on the topic of climate change, the writings of Bill McKibben are the definitive source.

In a piece for Rolling Stone dated December 1, 2017, McKibben penned these words, “The technology exists to combat climate change — what will it take to get our leaders to act?” As 2018 draws to a close, it is appropriate to examine his thesis and see what, if anything changed this year. McKibben started his Rolling Stone piece with these words:

“If we don’t win very quickly on climate change, then we will never win. That’s the core truth about global warming. It’s what makes it different from every other problem our political systems have faced.

“I wrote the first book for a general audience about climate change in 1989 – back when one had to search for examples to help people understand what the ‘greenhouse effect’ would feel like. We knew it was coming, but not how fast or how hard. And because no one wanted to overestimate – because scientists by their nature are conservative – each of the changes we’ve observed has taken us somewhat by surprise. The surreal keeps becoming the commonplace.”

Watching The Arctic Melt

“[W]ith global warming, the fundamental equation is precisely what’s shifting. And the remarkable changes we’ve seen so far — the thawed Arctic that makes the Earth look profoundly different from outer space; the planet’s seawater turning 30 percent more acidic — are just the beginning. ‘We’re inching ever closer to committing to the melting of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, which will guarantee 20 feet of sea-level rise,’ says Penn State’s Michael Mann, one of the planet’s foremost climatologists. ‘We don’t know where the ice-sheet collapse tipping point is, but we are dangerously close.'”

As if to underscore Mann’s and McKibben’s warnings, on December 5, NASA posted a video on YouTube showing how the Arctic ice sheet has melted from September, 1984 through September, 2016. It’s pretty scary stuff. [To view the video, click here.]

“Another way of saying this,” writes McKibben, “By 2075 the world will be powered by solar panels and windmills — free energy is a hard business proposition to beat. But on current trajectories, they’ll light up a busted planet. The decisions we make in 2075 won’t matter; indeed, the decisions we make in 2025 will matter much less than the ones we make in the next few years. The leverage is now.”

Solarize Amherst Workshops: A New Town Program to make it Easier and More Affordable to Purchase Rooftop Solar Panels

New program makes it cheaper for Amherst residents to 
'go solar'

By Joseph Popiolkowski | Buffalo News Online
May 4, 2017

Installing solar panels on roofs in Amherst is about to get easier and more affordable with the launch of a new town program.

Participants in the "Solarize Amherst" campaign can expect to save 10 percent through discounted group rates the town negotiated with three installers: Solar by CIR, Solar Liberty and Frey Electric.

"The town is acting as a liaison between the installers and residents and commercial property owners to work together to set up their own contracts if they want to install solar," said Mike Delamere, the town's energy manager.

A kickoff event is scheduled for 4 p.m. Tuesday in Council Chambers at Town Hall, 5583 Main St., Williamsville, where residents may schedule a free solar evaluation, which includes a roof evaluation, preliminary site design, energy usage profile and financial analysis.

Workshops also will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. May 17 at the Harlem Road Community Center, 4255 Harlem Road, and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 20 in the Clearfield Community Center, 730 Hopkins Road.

To encourage participation, the town is also waiving its $200 electrical permit fee for property owners who sign a contract with one of the three installers by June 5.  The program runs between May 9 and July 31.

A 4 to 5 kilowatt system is sufficient for most small residences and costs between $10,000 and $12,000, but that cost is cut by half after various rebates, Delamere said. Most homeowners can expect to recoup their upfront cost in four to five years, he said.

"Then after that it's all free electricity," he said. "The return on investment is about 4 to 5 years."

The roof-mounted photovoltaic panels degrade to about 80 percent efficiency after 20 years, Delamere said. An inverter in the basement to convert direct current to alternating current lasts between 10 to 15 years.

Installing a system can result in considerable savings for homeowners over the long term, he said.

"Any excess power that you produce actually reverses the electric meter," he said. "If you're producing more power than you're using, like on a sunny day in the summertime, you'll be reversing your electric meter so you get a credit for later on in the evening or different times in the year."

The solarize campaign is one of at least four initiatives the town's Clean Energy Communities Committee is completing for Amherst to become a Clean Energy Community, a program of New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and become eligible for a $250,000 grant.

The Town Board on Monday will consider purchasing an electric vehicle for the town fleet. The town has also trained building inspectors to be qualified to review solar plans and do inspections of solar installations and is adopting a unified solar permit, which are standards from NYSERDA that municipalities should follow.

"The weather patterns are really changing so everybody's getting more interested in doing what they can to save the planet," Delamere said.

~     ~     ~

Climate Activist, Bill McKibben, looks at Green Energy Solutions in relation to Electric Utility Practices

Power to the People

Why the rise of green energy makes utility companies nervous.

By Bill McKibben  | The New Yorker | June 29, 2015 Issue

Mark and Sara Borkowski live with their two young daughters in a century-old, fifteen-hundred-square-foot house in Rutland, Vermont. Mark drives a school bus, and Sara works as a special-ed teacher; the cost of heating and cooling their house through the year consumes a large fraction of their combined income. Last summer, however, persuaded by Green Mountain Power, the main electric utility in Vermont, the Borkowskis decided to give their home an energy makeover. In the course of several days, coordinated teams of contractors stuffed the house with new insulation, put in a heat pump for the hot water, and installed two air-source heat pumps to warm the home. They also switched all the light bulbs to L.E.D.s and put a small solar array on the slate roof of the garage.

The Borkowskis paid for the improvements, but the utility financed the charges through their electric bill, which fell the very first month. Before the makeover, from October of 2013 to January of 2014, the Borkowskis used thirty-four hundred and eleven kilowatt-hours [3411 kWh] of electricity and three hundred and twenty-five gallons of fuel oil [325 Gal.]. From October of 2014 to January of 2015, they used twenty-eight hundred and fifty-six kilowatt-hours [2856 kWh] of electricity and no oil [0 Gal.] at all. President Obama has announced that by 2025 he wants the United States to reduce its total carbon footprint by up to twenty-eight per cent [28%] of 2005 levels. The Borkowskis reduced the footprint of their house by eighty-eight per cent [88%] in a matter of days, and at no net cost.

I’ve travelled the world writing about and organizing against climate change, but, standing in the Borkowskis’ kitchen and looking at their electric bill, I felt a fairly rare emotion: hope. The numbers reveal a sudden new truth—that innovative, energy-saving and energy-producing technology is now cheap enough for everyday use. The Borkowskis’ house is not an Aspen earth shelter made of adobe and old tires, built by a former software executive who converted to planetary consciousness at Burning Man. It’s an utterly plain house, with Frozen bedspreads and One Direction posters, inhabited by a working-class family of four, two rabbits, and a parakeet named Oliver. It sits in a less than picturesque neighborhood, in a town made famous in recent years for its heroin problem. Its significance lies in its ordinariness. The federal Energy Secretary, Ernest Moniz, has visited, along with the entire Vermont congressional delegation. If you can make a house like this affordably green, you should be able to do it anywhere.

Most of the technology isn’t particularly exotic—these days, you can buy a solar panel or an air-source heat pump at Lowe’s. But few people do, because the up-front costs are high and the options can be intimidating. If the makeover was coördinated by someone you trust, however, and financed through your electric bill, the change would be much more palatable. The energy revolution, instead of happening piecemeal, over decades, could take place fast enough to actually help an overheating planet. But all of this would require the utilities—the interface between people and power—to play a crucial role, or, at least, to get out of the way.

An electric utility is an odd beast, neither public nor exactly private. Utilities are often owned by investors, but they’re almost always government-regulated, and they are charged with delivering power reliably and at an affordable price. Utilities are monopolies: since it would make no sense to have six sets of power poles and lines, utilities are granted exclusive rights to a territory. When you buy or rent a house, you automatically become the customer of the local utility, assuming that you want electricity and you don’t plan to generate all of it yourself. To keep the nation’s utilities honest, they are typically regulated at the state level by a public-service commission that sets rates, evaluates performance, and enforces mandates, such as a requirement that a certain amount of power come from renewable sources.

Whereas most enterprises are about risk, utilities are about safety: safe power supply, safe dividends. No surprises. As a result, the industry “has not attracted the single greatest minds,” David Roberts, who has covered energy for various outlets for a decade and is now a reporter for Vox, told me. “If you’re in a business where the customer is the public-utility commission, and after that your profits are locked in by law, it’s the sleepiest business sector there is, if you could even call it a business sector. They build power plants, sit back, and the money comes in.” The entire realm is protected, he added, by “a huge force field of boringness.”

But what has been a virtue, by and large, is now almost certainly a vice. Scientists insist that in order to forestall global warming we need to quickly change the way we power our lives. That’s perhaps most easily done by giant companies with big budgets for new technology; Google, Apple, and Ikea have all announced major plans to switch to renewable energy. For average Americans, however, the biggest source of carbon emissions is their home, so the utilities’ help is crucial in making the transition. And, even without climate change, utilities face a combination of threat and opportunity from disruptive new technologies.

Consider the Borkowskis’ new air-source heat pumps, which use the latent heat in the air (down to about zero degrees) to heat their home and provide hot water. These devices have made it practical for electricity to be used for tasks traditionally performed by oil and gas. Smart thermostats, such as the Nest, allow you to make your home far more energy-efficient—and can even, when connected to the “smart meters” that are now appearing on many houses, permit the utility to turn your demand down for a few seconds in response to fluctuations in the supply of sun and wind. Electric vehicles provide a major new use for electricity and, perhaps soon, the opportunity for huge numbers of idle car batteries to serve as a storage system for reserve power. (Solar and wind power can be a challenge to incorporate into the grid, because they’re intermittent—cloudy days happen, the wind fails. Affordable batteries are essential to making renewable energy widely available.)

“Americans spend eight per cent of their disposable income on all forms of energy,” David Crane told me. Crane is the C.E.O. of NRG, the country’s biggest independent power provider; the company operates more than a hundred energy-generation facilities, selling electricity to utilities that, in turn, sell it to customers. Nobody wants that eight-per-cent figure to rise, Crane said, because when energy prices go up the country tends to trip into recession. But plenty of companies, including Crane’s, would like to see a larger slice of that eight per cent. “I’m interested in electric cars, for instance, not just because of the effect on air quality but because I want to take market share away from oil,” Crane said. “It’s a brutal fight for market share.”

Power utilities now face uncertainty of a kind that traditional phone companies faced when cellular technology emerged. A few utilities welcome the challenge; others are resisting it; and the rest are waiting for someone to tell them what to do.

Read the full article at The New Yorker online to learn about McKibben’s interview with the co-founder and C.E.O. of SolarCity. McKibben also interviewed the New York State chairman of energy and finance and learned about his initiative called REV - Reforming the Energy Vision - that is trying to change the rules so that the utilities can both shift direction and make money. 

Click here to go to The New Yorker online.

Book: The Great Transition - from Fossil Fuels to Solar & Wind Energy

The Great Transition to Renewable Energy 

The global transition to clean, renewable energy and away from nuclear and fossils is well under way, with remarkable developments happening every day.  

The Great Transition by Lester Brown, Janet Larsen, Matt Roney, and Emily Adams lays out a tremendous range of these developments – here are seven that may surprise you.

1. Solar is now so cheap that global adoption appears unstoppable.

• The price of solar photovoltaic panels has declined 99 percent over the last four decades, from $74 a watt in 1972 to less than 70 cents a watt in 2014.

• Between 2009 and 2014, solar panel prices dropped by three fourths, helping global PV installations grow 50 percent per year.

• See more solar power facts here.

2. Wind power adoption is rapidly altering energy portfolios around the world.

• Over the past decade, world wind power capacity grew more than 20 percent a year, its increase driven by its many attractive features, by public policies supporting its expansion, and by falling costs.

• By the end of 2014, global wind generating capacity totaled 369,000 megawatts, enough to power more than 90 million U.S. homes. Wind currently has a big lead on solar PV, which has enough worldwide capacity to power roughly 30 million U.S. homes.

• See more wind power facts here.

3. National and subnational energy policies are promoting renewables, and many geographies are considering a price on carbon.

• Unfortunately, governments worldwide still subsidized the fossil fuel industry with over $600 billion, giving this aging industry five times the subsidy that went to renewables.

• But by the start of 2014, some 70 countries, including many in Europe, were using feed-in tariffs to encourage investment in renewables.

• See more energy policy facts here.

4. The financial sector is embracing renewables – and starting to turn against fossils and nuclear.

• The financial services firm Barclays downgraded the entire U.S. electricity sector in 2014, in part because in its view U.S. utilities are generally unprepared for the challenges posed by distributed solar power and battery storage.

• In January 2013, Warren Buffett gave solar energy a huge financial boost when his MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company announced an investment of up to $2.5 billion in California in what is now known as the Solar Star project. At 580 megawatts, it will become the world’s largest PV project when complete in late 2015. MidAmerican had earlier bought the Topaz solar farm in California, now tied with Desert Sunlight, another California project, as the world’s largest at 550 megawatts. As of its completion in late 2014, Topaz can generate enough electricity to power 180,000 California homes.

• See more financial sector facts here.

5. Coal use is in decline in the United States and will likely fall at the global level far sooner than once thought possible.

• U.S. coal use is dropping – it fell 21 percent between 2007 and 2014 – and more than one-third of the nation’s coal plants have already closed or announced plans for future closure in the last five years.

• Major U.S. coal producers, such as Peabody Energy and Arch Coal, have seen their market values drop by 61 and 94 percent, respectively, as of September 2014.

• See more coal facts here.

6. Transportation will move away from oil as electric vehicle fleets expand rapidly and bike- and car-sharing spreads.

• Bike-sharing programs have sprung up worldwide in recent years. More than 800 cities in 56 countries now have fully operational bike-share programs, with over 1 million bikes. In the United States, by the end of 2012 some 21 cities had 8,500 bikes in bike-share racks. By the end of 2016, this is expected to climb to over 70 cities with close to 40,000 bikes.

• The share of carless households increased in 84 out of 100 U.S. urban areas surveyed between 2006 and 2011. And as urbanization increases, this share will only rise.

• See more transportation facts here.

7. Nuclear is on the rocks thanks to rising costs and widespread safety concerns.

• For the world as a whole, nuclear power generation peaked in 2006, and dropped by nearly 14 percent by 2014.

• In the United States, the country with the most reactors, nuclear generation peaked in 2010 and is now also on the decline.

• See more nuclear facts here.

Chapter 1 of The Great Transition: Shifting from Fossil Fuels to Solar and Wind Energy is available online at www.earth-policy.org/books/tgt.

Supporting data and a PowerPoint summary presentation are also available for free downloading.

Sierra Club Awards to be Presented at Annual Dinner

THE SIERRA CLUB-NIAGARA GROUP

ANNUAL AWARDS DINNER
Thursday, April 30, 2015

 OPENING TALK

Learn about the imperative of “Just Transitions” from Erin Heaney, Executive Director of the Clean Air Coalition. We know we must move off fossil fuels to address climate change, but this transition can impact workers and communities unfairly. Whose responsibility is it to address the injustice?

SIERRA CLUB AWARDS 2015

The Blake Reeves Award to the Buffalo Public Schools

 In recognition of the Solar Power Purchase Agreement

Solar panels will be installed at 20 Buffalo Public Schools to provide clean electrical power. We particularly recognize Paul McDonnell, Director of Facilities Planning Design and Construction, Jason McCarthy of the School Board, and Richard Steinberg, a Sierra Club Member.

Bruce Kershner Award to Charley Bowman

For leadership in working with many climate change issues and his concerns for justice and peace being central to the mission of climate justice.

AWARDS DINNER

LOCATION: My Tomato Pie Restaurant, 3085 Sheridan Dr., Amherst (Northtown Plaza between Alberta Dr. and Niagara Falls Blvd. - Map)

TIME: Begins at 5:45pm -- Dinner buffet starts at 6:30pm and includes vegetarian options.

COST: $25 per person including tax and gratuity.
 
Please RSVP by April 27th. You can either e-mail sierraclubangela@gmail.com  or call Larry at 716-634-8715.   Hope to see you there!

Presentation: Solar Electricity for Your Home

How can a Homeowner put Solar on their Roof?

Presentation on Home Installation of Solar Electricity

The Sierra Club Niagara Group and UB Office of Sustainability are sponsoring an informational session on Home Installation of Solar Panels to generate Electricity.

Hear about the benefits of a solar panel installation on your home.

Have your “how to” questions answered.

Presentation by local installers: CIR Electric, Frey Electric and Solar Liberty.

Date: Monday March 24 at 7 PM

Place: UB Gateway Building, Rm. 208, 77 Goodell (corner of Goodell and Ellicott), Buffalo, NY

For more information Go to www.niagarasierraclub.wordpress.com 

or E-mail sierraclubangela@gmail.com

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Presentation: UB Entry in Solar Decathalon Competition

WNY Sustainable Energy Association 

Hosts 

UB Solar Decathlon Presentation! 

Monday, April 7th at 7pm 

Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center 

341 Delaware Avenue 

Buffalo, NY 14202 

(716) 854-1694 

www.hallwalls.org 

Free and Open to the Public! 

Please save the date and attend the WNY Sustainable Energy Association’s Reitan Speaker Series at Hallwalls for a night of innovation and Green Building design. UB Professor of Architecture Martha Bohm, UB Clinical Assistant Professor of Architecture Brad Wales, along with their graduate students will unveil the renderings of GRoW House. 

This is a first time entry for the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning in the US Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon bi-annual competition that will be held in Irvine, California in 2015. The UB Solar Decathlon design entry incorporates the latest green design technology and renewable energy implementation that will enable the inhabitants to Grow, Relax and Work; GRow House! 

Join the WNY Sustainable Energy Association for this informative and exciting presentation at Hallwalls!

60 Businesses Urge Cuomo to Lead on Renewable Energy

Local Businesses Call for 'Winds of Change'

 

Buffalo, New York — Thursday morning, business owners, concerned residents and union representatives gathered to call on Gov. Cuomo to make a commitment to boost wind energy in the state.  The event, hosted by the Sierra Club Niagara Group and Beyond Coal Campaign, was to celebrate sixty local businesses signing on to the campaign.

“Fossil fuel plants across the state drive climate change and can make people sick with diseases like asthma,” said Sierra Club Beyond Coal organizer Charlotte Olena.  “New York can be a leader in clean energy production.  Sixty local businesses have spoken: it’s time for Gov. Cuomo to lead on climate issues and make a serious commitment to boosting wind energy across the state.”

The Sierra Club’s “Turn, Don’t Burn” campaign is calling on Gov. Cuomo to be a champion for wind in New York State by doubling onshore wind energy by 2018 and support an offshore wind project this year.  With questions emerging about the viability of power production from sources like the Huntley Coal Plant, the Sierra Club sees wind energy as the way forward for Western New York.

“If given a fair chance and a level playing field, wind can compete dollar for dollar with the fossil fuels, and in some cases it’s cheaper because the fuel is free” said Thom Fleckenstein, the owner of Niagara Wind and Solar.  Businesses across Western New York have endorsed the Turn, Don’t Burn campaign, including Fleckenstein’s.  “As a small-scale wind developer, a commitment from Gov. Cuomo to support wind like the NY Sun Initiative would mean a lot to my business and open doors for others like me in New York.”

Clean energy is not just a concern for environmentalists or wind developers.  For New York’s workforce, clean energy programs can mean well-paid jobs.  “We have an obligation to our future generations to provide good jobs and a clean environment.  We can and must achieve those goals simultaneously,” remarked Michael Murphy, Rapid Response Coordinator for the United Steel Workers Local 8823, based in South Buffalo.

“Western New York is poised to emerge as a leader in wind development both because of being home to some of the richest wind resources in the state, and also because of our region’s history of manufacturing.  All we need is for Governor Cuomo to make it happen.” 

It is not only businesses signing on to the Sierra Club’s campaign.  Last week, State Senator Mark Grisanti submitted comment to NYSERDA calling for more wind energy in the Governor’s State Energy Plan.  His statement too, called on Gov. Cuomo to “make New York a climate leader,” with a commitment to increase wind capacity.

“It is up to this generation and this Governor to take action immediately to transition from fossil fuels to renewables,” commented Lynda Schneekloth, the chair of the Sierra Club’s Niagara Group.  Fossil fuel powered plants are the biggest drivers of climate change due to carbon emissions.  Even natural gas plants pose the risk of leaking methane, which, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change can be 34 times worse than carbon dioxide as a heat-trapping gas.

“The climate is changing and we can just let it happen or we can design a way forward.  We have the technology in wind power, and if states like Iowa, Texas and South Dakota can get 20% of their electricity from wind, New York should be able to do the same.  Governor Cuomo, we ask you to lead us there.

The group’s efforts this spring have been around uniting concerned residents, business owners, and organizations to bring attention to the issue of clean energy in Western New York.

~ ~ ~

Report in The Buffalo News: Group pushes for New York State’s help in building wind turbines

HOMEOWNERS: Cut Electricity Bills and Pollution by Leasing Solar Panels

Solar panel leasing is new alternative to purchasing that has recently become available to homeowners in New York State. Leasing will make the transition to clean, renewable electricity possible and affordable for many more homeowners. 

Favorable incentives offered by the federal and state governments now make leasing a home solar-electric system possible.
 
With leasing, there are no up-front purchase costs and no additional charges for installation, maintenance and insurance.

Savings over previous electric bills are guaranteed. At the same time, the solar homeowner will lower their carbon footprint and help stabilize the climate. It's a win-win for people and the planet.

It's also a win for our local economy since solar system installation creates new, local jobs -- green jobs. 

To get a Free Quote to see if leasing solar panels will work for you, Click Here, and get $500.00 back if you lease.

Originally posted on 4/21/2012

Non-Profit Organizations: Cut Electricity Bills by Going Solar

No Up-front Costs -- Savings are Guaranteed!

Non-profit organizations, like churches, schools, social and community service groups, can realize immediate savings on their electric bill by leasing solar panels and generating their own electricity. With leasing, there are no up-front purchase costs and no additional charge for installation.

Bill Nowak is working with Solar Liberty to bring solar PV energy systems to non-profits and community-oriented organizations. Solar Liberty will install a 25 kW system for no money down and lease it to the organization for $100 a month for 15 years. Savings over previous electric bills are guaranteed.

At the end of the 15 year term, the organization is free to negotiate a new lease, buy the system at a fair market price, or have Solar Liberty take the system back.

All of the electricity generated by the system - approximately 26,000 kWh per year, valued at more than $3,000 per year at today’s prices, belongs to the organization for the $1,200 per year lease payments - the difference is money they would have been paying the utility company. Please see a Solar Liberty flier here.

This works because of some favorable incentives offered by the federal and state governments, which are set to expire on December 31, 2011.

This is a great opportunity for our community!

If you’d like to learn more about this program, Solar Liberty is holding FREE WEBINARS on June 23rd and 28th at 10 AM and June 30th at 2:00 PM. Sign up here.

Please send Bill Nowak any leads you may have with local non-profits or community organizations that own their own buildings or have a long term lease on their building. The roof space on the building needs to be fairly large (around 3,000 open feet) to qualify for this offer.

Contact Bill Nowak by e-mail here or phone him at 716-882-9237.

Firehouse joins WNY Solar Power Parade

BELLEVUE FIRE DISTRICT #9 SAVING MONEY WITH SUNSHINE

CHEEKTOWAGA, NY – The new solar electric system at the Bellevue Fire District #9 firehouse has saved over $2,000 in electrical costs since the beginning of the year. The 140-panel photovoltaic system is on tract to produce an expected 29,260 kilowatt hours of electricity per year for the building at 511 Como Park Blvd. in Cheektowaga.

“With the increasing costs of energy, we wanted to offset some of our electrical costs in a way that wouldn’t raise the fire district budget,” explained Commissioner Jamie Casucci of the Bellevue Fire District. “There’s no down side to solar energy. The solar panel system will help prevent additional burden on the taxpayers from rising electricity rates.”

Most of the 28 kilowatt system’s cost was funded by a $137,000 grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). The remaining upfront cost will be paid back in just 6 years from the value of the electricity it produces. The Fire District is expecting to save $191,000 in energy costs over the system’s minimum 25-year warranted lifetime. That’s a 17.4% annual rate of return on investment.

The photovoltaic solar system was installed by Solar Liberty of Buffalo, which has recently completed similar systems for the Eggertsville Fire Department and South Dayton Fire Department.

“When public or nonprofit facilities use solar, they demonstrate to the community that upgrading a building with a solar energy system makes sense both financially and environmentally,” said Adam Rizzo, President of Solar Liberty. “Saving money on electricity is especially important for organizations that are dependent on the community for their support.”

Aside from saving money, the fire hall is a much greener building. The system will offset the firehouse’s carbon footprint by 501 tons of CO2 during the next 25 years of solar electricity production. This is the equivalent of planting a forest of 20,000 trees or removing 911,000 miles of automobile traffic from the roads.
“We’re currently looking at other ways to update the building in an effort to be more environmentally friendly while taking steps to save money,” according to Commissioner Casucci.

A Parade of Solar Power in Western NY
Solar Liberty has been installing hundreds of solar energy systems statewide for government, commercial, and residential customers. Recent local installations have been completed at dozens of Catholic Diocese schools, the downtown Merchant’s Insurance headquarters, and the town of West Seneca, as well as many Western New York State homes. Major upcoming installations are the 1.1 MW University at Buffalo solar project, the NFTA Bus Garage, and the Rochester International Airport.

Western NY has the Sun, and we've got Clean, Renewable Power!