Bridge Authority activates solar array
The 1,332-panel installation is expected to generate about 26 percent of the electricity used by the agency.
TOWN OF ULSTER, N.Y. >> The state Bridge Authority’s new 1,332-panel solar array at the west end of the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge is expected to generate about 26 percent of the electricity used by the agency, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 356 metric tons per year, according to the authority.
The 486-kilowatt array was activated Monday, the Bridge Authority said in a press release. The total cost of the project was $117,000, and the investment is expected to pay for itself in 13 years in the form of energy savings, the authority said.
The project is part of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Green New Deal, which requires 100 percent of the state’s electricity to come from renewable energy sources by 2040, according to the Bridge Authority.
“Under Governor Cuomo’s direction, New York state is leading the nation by pursuing innovative renewable energy sources,” Bridge Authority board Chairman Richard Gerentine said in a prepared statement. “This is the kind of leadership necessary to fight the harmful effects of climate change by finding creative ways to lower our dependence on electricity generated from fossil fuels.”
Bridge Authority Executive Director Joseph Ruggiero said the agency now “will explore additional sites to build more solar panel arrays, further reducing our dependence on commercially sourced electricity.”
The completion of the solar project at the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge comes on the heels of the Bridge Authority converting all of its street lights and lightbulbs to LED. That conversion is expected to decrease the agency’s electricity use by 22 percent.
When combined with the electricity that will be produced by the new solar array, this will equate to a 48 percent reduction in traditional commercially sourced electricity used by the Bridge Authority, the press release said.