Solar panels unveiled at park
WATERFORD, N.Y. » Officials from New York State Parks unveiled one of the agency’s energy saving projects Wednesday at Peebles Island where 450 photovoltaic panels are powering 30 percent of the state Historic Preservation headquarters’ energy needs.
The project is another part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Clean Energy Standard. The initiative requires 50 percent of the state’s electricity come from renewable sources by the year 2030 along with a 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Standing under a blazing sun on the roof of what once was a Cluet Peabody shirt factory bleaching
building, NYS Parks Commissioner Rose Harvey described the project and what’s next for the agency.
“This is where historic preservation begins, happens and never ends,” she said. “This old building is green, it’s energy efficient, it’s carbon efficient and has the highest standards of fiscal and environmental responsibility.”
Describing the renovation and upgrades to the early 20th century building Harvey remarked how buildings were built well back then and with some restoration, they provide a perfect platform for upgrades.
“With the efficient restoration of this whole factor we can add modern technology and solar and really achieve the maximum in energy efficiency, carbon emission reductions, and fiscal responsibility,” she said.
The cost of the solar project was $375,000. State officials said the money will be returned in energy costs savings in the next 15 years while the panels have a 25 year warranty. Harvey said getting the solar panels installed on the building’s roof is a story of partnership, one that includes state Parks, the state Legislature, NYSERDA’s New York Sun Program, the New York Power Authority, and Hudson Valley Community College. The Historic Preserva- tion site project is also part of the governor’s NY Parks 2020 Initiative, a program that seeks to repair, modernize, and transform the state’s park system. “Our job is to take the park system and all its sites into the 21st Century to honor and restore the grandeur of our history, our environment, our architecture, and then ensure that we modernize it, make it relevant, and see that it’s energy efficient operationally sustainable and climate resilient,” Harvey said.
The solar panels are supplying 30 percent of all the electricity used at the headquarters for the division of Historic Preservation on Peebles Island and 100 percent is the goal.
“This project is an evolution of what we’ll do with the entire complex and the entire former factory and it’s also a great way to show how you can adapt and incorporate modern technology into historic preservation efforts and bring new life to historic structures,” she said. Harvey noted that when Gov. Cuomo came into office the state used about 50 million kilowatt hours of electricity each year. All of it was coming from the power grid. Since 2013, she said, and with parts of NY Parks 2020 launched, solar panels have been installed in 18 state parks. Replacement of conventional lighting with new energy efficient lighting is also under way. The effort, she said, is saving the state $1 million per year. Assemblyman John McDonald, D- Cohoes, helped move the legislation forward in the legislature that got the restoration and solar project its initial funding. “What’s not to like about this project,” he said Wednesday. “There’s historic preservation, re-purposing, increasing solar energy, job training, career training and saving taxpayers money. All these areas wrapped up into one project that can replicated throughout our state parks and historic sites.”
He added later that get the support for the funding in the Assembly was not much of a problem.
“It wasn’t that difficult to keep people on board because of where it is,” he said. “It strikes at historic preservation, repurposing a historic building, speaks to a new future of energy, connects the past to the future and just as importantly speaks to workforce training and developing careers for many young men and women.”
Commenting on the issue of job and training at the unveiling was Richard E. Bennett III, an associate dean at Hudson Valley Community College.
After Mike Wise, Parks’ director of energy and sustainability, reached out to Bennett to get 10 Parks employees trained at the school in solar panel installation, Bennett in turn, reached out to the U.S. Labor Department’s Job Corps in Glenmont to start a program at the school.
“We talked about a program where Mike’s employees would get training. After that discussion I realized that if business and industry can recognize a program like this one what about Job Corps,” he said. “We went to Job Corps and talked about this program to them and at this time we’re the leading provider in this type of training in the country.”
Wise said he initially went to Bennett about training 10 employees. Now there are 80.
Two of those early state Parks trainees, Alxy Gleason and Caity Tremblay, were assisting on the rooftop.
“Hudson Valley was great,” Gleason said. “They condensed a semester course for us. The instructor was great too, and the hands- on training was very beneficial. It made me more confident with the installations that we do throughout the parks.”