By George Pyle – BUFFALO NEWS - May 05, 2010

 Two Western New York companies are among those receiving 25 grants from a state agency to help develop and bring to market products that promise to improve the clean generation and storage of energy.

Graphene Devices of Amherst and Precision Electro Minerals of Niagara Falls have been notified that they are to receive awards from a pool totaling $11.3 million from the state’s Regional Greenhouse Gas cap and trade auction and the Systems Benefit Charge funds.

Graphene Devices is to receive funding for developing a process that will manufacture films consisting of a one-atom-thick layer of carbon that should be able to replace higher-cost materials in the manufacture of solar power cells. It and six other companies will divide up a total of $4.1 million in product development funds.

Precision Electro Minerals is one of 13 firms and colleges that are to split $2.6 million allocated for feasibility studies. The company is studying the practicality of a new process for making solar-grade silicon. The grants are allocated by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and in each case are to be matched by private investment, for a total of $22.6 million in project investment. They were selected from 71 proposals received.

“The products that emerge from these initiatives will help create jobs and develop the tools needed to help us mitigate our impact on the environment for the next generation,” Gov. David A. Paterson said in a statement.

The exact amount to be received by each developer is not made public at this stage of the process, officials said, because contract talks are ongoing. In many cases, authority officials said, contracts will include a requirement that the grants be repaid once the products involved become profitable.

gpyle@buffnews.com

By George Pyle – Buffalo News - January 19, 2010

An industrial park under development in the Town of Tonawanda has been rebranded as New York’s first “solar ready” commercial development, as its owners Monday celebrated the signing of a deal expected to bring Chinese know-how and investment to the site.

Leaders of TM Montante Development, the owners of the newly renamed Riverview Solar Technology Park, and the Shanghai New Energy Industry Association held a ceremonial signing of a memorandum of understanding Monday morning at the offices of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership in downtown Buffalo.

The text of the memo was not made public, but it was described by leaders of both parties as a promise and plan to link the renewable energy industries of China, where 35 percent of the world’s solar energy modules are made, and Western New York, where solar and other renewable energy sources are seen as an environmentally responsible route to economic renewal.

In addition to its previous designation as a “shovel ready” development site by state officials, meaning that it has already received its environmental and development permits, Montante Development President Thomas M. Montante said the project will be “solar ready.”

Fifty of the park’s 180 acres, which sit along River Road northeast of the South Grand Island Bridge, will be set aside for solar energy collectors that will generate 10 megawatts of power for use on site.

That power, together with the area’s availability of pollution- free hydropower from the New York Power Authority, means park businesses not only can make products that do not create greenhouse gas emissions but also can make them in an environment that is pollution- free.

“We intend to be New York’s leader in solar development,” Montante said. “Energy and the environment are at the forefront of the battle for attracting and retaining business throughout the country. We decided to address this reality with a strategy of integrating solar as an enhancement of our core business.”

The Shanghai organization is a consortium of about 300 member companies from the Shanghai area’s renewable energy sector, which also maintains an office in San Jose, Calif. Its executive vice chairwoman, Yeu Mi, signed the document Monday on behalf of the association.

“I am 100 percent confident in this new era of energy development in New York State,” Mi said through a translator. “We are going to develop our products not only in the United States but in the whole world.”

A link between the two parties was provided by Daniel Montante, son of the company president and a director of Montante Development, who is a veteran of four years of business experience in Shanghai as an acquisitions and mergers representative for DuPont.

The younger Montante said the Riverview development plan allows a form of commerce that does not demand so much of a sacrifice from nature and forms a cooperative rather than a competitive relationship with growing Chinese businesses.

“We look forward to progressive and productive relations that will benefit both parties,” he said.

Also on hand to praise the agreement were State Sen. George D. Maziarz, R-Newfane, and Assemblyman Robin Schimminger, D-Town of Tonawanda.

“You have picked the right partners,” Maziarz said to the Shanghai delegation, “and you have picked the right location.”

State economic development officials announced recently that the state had awarded a $1 million grant to the Town of Tonawanda for its Riverwalk East Park Connector project to build roads and utility services for the Montante project and for the town-owned North Youngmann Commerce Center nearby.

gpyle@buffnews.com

May 7, 2009

BUFFALO—In its effort to promote renewable energy technologies throughout New York State and in response to Governor Paterson’s call to expand New York’s renewable energy portfolio, the New York Power Authority (NYPA) today joined with the University at Buffalo (UB) to announce a major, multi-million dollar award to the university to construct a 1.1 megawatt solar energy array on UB’s North (Amherst) Campus. The solar array, consisting of approximately 5,000 photovoltaic panels, will generate clean energy directly from the sun for students living in UB’s apartment complexes.

NYPA will work with UB to provide site design, engineering and construction services for this project.

The award to UB will serve as a cornerstone of NYPA’s $21 million statewide renewable energy program and will advance the UB 2020 strategic plan’s focus on making the university’s three campuses great places to live, work and learn, in part by improving their environmental sustainability. 

It will be the largest solar installation on any college or university campus in New York State and one of the largest on any campus in the United States, according to the American Solar Energy Society.

“This partnership between NYPA and UB exemplifies how New York State is poised to become the leader in this new energy economy,” said Governor David A. Paterson. “This project also demonstrates my Administration’s commitment to achieving the clean energy goals of the ambitious ’45 by 15’ program, which will create clean energy jobs throughout New York State, and result in greater energy independence and a cleaner environment.”

Richard M. Kessel, NYPA president and chief executive officer, said, “NYPA is committed to investing in Western New York, and the University at Buffalo is the perfect partner for promoting, developing, educating and training in photovoltaic technologies for a cleaner environment, energy independence and green-collar jobs.

“Through this project, NYPA is making great strides in advancing Governor Paterson’s ‘45 by 15’ initiative, which sets a date of 2015 by which New York State is to meet 45 percent of its electricity needs through improved energy efficiency and clean renewable energy.” 

According to NYPA, UB’s North Campus solar array will reduce carbon emissions at UB by more than 500 metric tons per year.

Designed to produce 1.1 megawatts (1.1 million watts) of electricity, the UB solar array is expected to be operating by fall 2010.  It will provide power to UB’s Flint, Hadley, South Lake and Creekside Village apartments, a total of 735 apartments, housing nearly 2,000 undergraduate and graduate UB students.

According to NYPA, the UB solar array will be specially designed to operate in a cold weather environment and to withstand heavy snowfall, serving as a benchmark for future systems in similar climates. In doing so, the UB/NYPA project will promote the development of innovative solar technologies.

As a result of this project, Western New York could become a new center for green-collar jobs, as the UB/NYPA partnership includes collaborations with the university and area colleges to start training and certifying personnel in the installation of solar panels.

UB President John B. Simpson said UB “takes great pleasure in accepting this exciting award from the New York Power Authority.”

“This award not only recognizes UB’s long record of environmental leadership, but it commits us to a greener, more sustainable future that is exactly in keeping with the goals of UB 2020 and Building UB,” he said.

“By helping us generate our own power on campus, this solar array helps us take a significant step toward meeting one of the primary goals of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, in which the university has pledged to go ‘climate-neutral,’” Simpson added.

Combined with existing clean energy purchases, this project puts UB well past the 15 percent interim renewable energy target set for signatories of the Presidents’ Climate Commitment.

Simpson noted that the project also will foster UB education and research with the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in the area of renewable energy. It will provide students and researchers with the opportunity to study and track the real-time functioning of an on-site clean energy system. The system will include a data acquisition feature that will be especially useful in research and education.

New York State Senator Michael H. Ranzenhofer, said, “As a graduate of SUNY at Buffalo, I am very supportive of the solar panel project which will be one of the largest solar projects in New York State.”

New York State Assemblyman Dennis Gabryszak, said, “This joint project between NYPA and UB will prove to be a blueprint for other campuses across the nation.  UB once again is spearheading a new era in WNY as we look to conserve energy, reduce carbon emissions and generate green collar jobs.”

Contrary to the conventional wisdom about Buffalo’s weather, data from the National Weather Service shows that from May through November, Buffalo is the sunniest and driest city in the Northeast, making it an ideal candidate for generating solar power.

The project will give many UB students the unique experience of living in apartments where their electricity is provided not by the burning of fossil fuels hundreds of miles away but by the clean, renewable power of the sun here on campus with virtually no greenhouse gas emissions, Simpson noted. 

UB student Emily Bauer, member of the UB Environmental Stewardship Committee and a delegate to the State University of New York Student Assembly, said she and her fellow students look forward to construction of the solar array on UB’s campus.

“Climate change is one of the biggest problems facing the next generation and is of great concern to UB students,” she said. “By stepping up as a leader in solar energy, UB has shown it is committed to a bright future for our environment.”

State Senator Antoine Thompson said the NYPA/Buffalo partnership is a step forward for green energy in Western New York. “As Chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, I have been focused on making Buffalo an epicenter for green initiatives,” Thompson noted. “An institution of the size of UB making the decision to run on solar panels instead of electricity is a step in the right direction.  Conserving energy and resources in this way benefits the environment greatly.”

The new solar installation at UB will be the largest ground-mounted PV system in New York State.

Its 5,000 panels will be installed on or adjacent to the North Campus grounds of the Melvin H. Baker Chilled Water Plant on Flint Road, which delivers utility services to the 1,200- acre suburban campus.

This will be UB’s second solar electric system; in 2006, UB installed a 73.5 kilowatt demonstration solar system on top of Norton Hall, which provides at least 6 percent of that building’s power.

By Nancy Gish – - SOUTHTOWNS CORRESPONDENT- BFLO NEWS – Jan 16, 2010

The Elma Town Board on Wednesday heard a presentation from a solar panel consulting company seeking the town’s business to install solar panels on property behind Town Hall on Bowen Road.

Supervisor Michael Nolan initially asked the board to consider solar panels on the roof of Town Hall but TVGA, a local engineering company, suggested the panels be installed on the ground behind Town Hall.

Grant money is available for the project through stimulus aid and no town funds would be required. However, TVGA, which would build the infrastructure to contain the panels, suggested the town pay for 10 percent of the project to speed up the grant process.

The consulting company, NYSOL, would procure the products, do the grant writing and hire the installers.

The goal is to reduce Town Hall electrical use by 15 percent by 2015 while increasing renewable energy, promote climate protection and support green innovation and the economy. Excess power generated by the panels would go back into the grid, officials said during the board’s workshop session.

The town would see a $6,000 saving in its electric bill and reap renewable energy credits. The project would employ about 100 16-square-foot solar panels.

Nolan, long a proponent of the panels, said, “We need to be proactive with energy efficiency. It is a lot to gain for the local taxpayer. It’s an investment in the future.”

However, Councilman Dean Puleo is not so sure.

“The whole idea is very distasteful to me,” he said. “It is clearly not cost-effective and is a horrible investment. . . .”

He said the $120,000 cost would take the town 20 years to recoup at the estimated electrical savings of $6,000 a year.

The issue will be on the agenda when the board meets on Wednesday.

By Jonathan D. Epstein – BUFFALO NEWS BUSINESS REPORTER 06/30/09

A Williamsville firm will handle most of the work on a $7.5 million contract to install a massive solar panel system at the University at Buffalo, designed to provide “green” energy to student apartments, the New York Power Authority said Monday.

Solar Liberty will work in conjunction with a Canadian firm to set up the system, which officials called the largest solar installation at any college or university in the state, and one of the largest on any U. S. campus.

It’s part of a new emphasis by the Power Authority and the state on renewable energy, and on lessening the state’s dependence on fossil fuels, officials said. And it will lead to the creation of what officials called “green” jobs that can’t be exported overseas.

The proposed contract, which still faces approval by the Power Authority board, calls for the installation of a 1.1-megawatt solar photovoltaic system on UB’s North Campus in Amherst. The project includes about 5,000 solar panels that will generate 1.3 million kilowatt hours of energy annually. That will power 735 apartments at UB’s Flint Village, housing more than 2,000 students. One megawatt typically powers 1,000 homes.

The contract, which was subject to competitive bidding, will technically be awarded to Simcoe, Ont.- based DeCloet Greenhouse Manufacturing. However, 80 percent of the contract, or up to $6 million, will go to Solar Liberty.

Power Authority President and CEO Richard Kessel said Monday that he will ask the authority’s board to approve the contract for Solar Liberty at the board’s regular meeting today, to be held at the Niagara Power Project’s Power Vista in Lewiston. Although the decision is not yet final, Kessel said he had spoken to many of the directors and said they are in favor.

“They think this is exactly what the Power Authority should be doing,” said Kessel. “This is the first of many projects we’ll be doing in Western New York.”

Under the contract, Solar Liberty, headquartered at 6225 Sheridan Drive in the Sheridan Meadows office complex, will purchase the panels and other equipment and provide the local labor to install the ground-mounted system. DeCloet, a greenhouse maker with expertise in laying fields of equipment in the ground, will provide technical expertise and supervision, but the work will be handled by Solar Liberty.

The panels will be installed at four feet off the ground, at a pitched angle facing south, and will occupy six acres near the campus’ chilling plant. Each panel is about 15 square feet. They can generate electricity even through a few inches of snow, but the top surface is glass with no friction so snow will slide off with a little heat.

Construction could start in August and it’s slated for completion by fall 2010, though Kessel said it could be ready sooner.

Solar Liberty, which employs 14, said it expects to hire another 10 to 15 installation workers, who will be paid between $35 and $50 an hour, as well as some more administrative staff to work in its offices.

The UB project is expected to be the largest ground-mounted solar photovoltaic system in the state. It’s part of a $21 million renewable energy program by the Power Authority that officials said will focus on Western New York and the North Country.

Founded by Rizzo, a UB Law School graduate, and his brother Nathan, Solar Liberty is one of the largest solar electric “integrators” and installers in the state. It serves government, nonprofit, education, commercial and residential customers.

In addition to its main office here, it has an office in Syracuse, and installation crews working around the state. It also serves installers nationally through a wholesale division.

jepstein@buffnews.com

Sunworks Pledges to Create 175 Jobs

By James Heaney - BUFFALO NEWS STAFF REPORTER - 7/01/09 

The state Power Authority has awarded a large block of low-cost hydropower to a fledgling California company that plans to build a plant in Western New York to manufacture solar panels.

Sunworks Solar plans to spend $200 million to build a plant that would employ 175. The New York Power Authority on Tuesday agreed to allocate five megawatts of hydropower, which it will sell to the San Francisco-based company for about one-quarter the market rate.

The plant would build large solar panels for utilities. Pay would range from $40,000 to over $100,000 a year, depending on the position.

Company officials said they have not yet selected a site, but that it would be in Western New York. A construction timetable is also up in the air. Work could start as soon as next spring.

The company was founded last year and does not operate a plant, but is in negotiations to build several in differing locales.

Sunworks Solar would be one of the larger buyers of low-cost hydropower from the authority. The five megawatt allocation is the fifth-largest made by the authority since 2006 and is eight-times larger than the typical allocation made by the authority during that period.

The deal would save the company an estimated $1.6 million a year, or $9,352 per job. By contract, the average deal made by the authority since 2006 provides annual savings of $11,833 per job.

The deal also compares favorably in terms of the amount of private investment the power leverages. On average, deals done by NYPA since 2006 produce $11,451 of investment for each kilowatt allocated. The Sunworks deal would generate nearly four times more investment, or $40,000.

The allocation marks the continuation of a trend by the authority to earmark large blocks of power to green manufacturing concerns.

In recent years, the authority has committed 40 megawatts to Globe Metals, which is refurbishing a plant in Niagara Falls to produce metallurgical-grade silicon for use in the manufacture of solar panels, and five megawatts each to ethanol plants proposed for Buffalo and Niagara Falls.

None of those facilities are operating yet, however. Globe is still overhauling its plant and the ethanol plants are still on the drawing board.

In the meantime, the authority is selling the allocated, but unused power at market rates and keeping the proceeds. U. S. Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, is pressing the authority to keep those proceeds in Western New York.

jheaney@buffnews.com

Adam Rizzo, left, president of Solar Liberty, talks to Eric Lindstrom, associate vice president at Cannon Design, about the solar panels his company is installing on the roof of Cannon’s Grand Island building. Robert Kirkham / Buffalo News

Updated: 05/11/09 07:51 AM

Solar 2009 spotlights region’s potential as a renewable power hub

Buffalo poised to display it’s green side to 3,000 visitors

By Stephen T. Watson – Buffalo News Staff Reporter

If you believe our poor meteorological reputation, bringing a solar power conference to Buffalo is like talking about snow removal in Phoenix or preparing for hurricanes in Minneapolis.

But Buffalo this week hosts one of the largest national conferences on solar and other renewable energy sources, and that’s not a punch line for a joke in a Jay Leno monologue.

In fact, organizers say the Solar 2009 National Conference offers a chance for an expected 3,000 out-oftowners to see that this region is a hotbed of activity in renewable energy and green jobs.

“We need to be put on the map for a little bit more than snow,” said Edward E. Hogle, who is building student housing in Black Rock that will use solar energy and boilers running on grease and vegetable oil.

A number of businesses that offer green products and services have sprouted up here in recent years, and experts say this region can be a center for the nation’s emerging green economy.

Companies, schools and local governments also are working to become environmentally friendly, taking advantage of solar and wind power to operate more efficiently.

“People say, ‘Why Buffalo?’ It only makes sense for Buffalo, because of our strategic location,” said Marika Woods-Frankenstein, cultural and environmental development coordinator for the Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts.

The conference, in the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center, will show off local green projects, including wind turbines, solar panel arrays and Hogle’s green housing.

And if you think this a stretch for a place perceived as a frozen landscape 10 months of the year, think again. We have more sunny days annually than Rochester, Syracuse — and Orlando, Fla.

“Buffalo has been called the sun capital of the Northeast,” said Adam Rizzo, president of Solar Liberty, a Williamsville company that installs solar systems.

Interest in the Solar 2009 conference is sky-high, said Neal Lurie, American Solar Energy Society spokesman. With about 5,000 people expected, the Buffalo event will have the biggest crowd in the conference’s 38 years, he said, “which is impressive when you consider last year we were in San Diego.”

Big economic impact

About 3,000 attendees should come from out of town, generating an economic impact of $2.4 million for the region during the six-day conference that begins today, said Cheryl J. Zanghi, national sales manager for the Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Highlights of the conference include speeches Friday by Gov. David A. Paterson and futurist David Zach and tours showcasing the region’s environmentally friendly projects and green companies, which are open to the public. Visit www.ases.org and look for details on Solar 2009. Holding a solar energy conference in Buffalo isn’t so farfetched, organizers said.

Buffalo, between May and September, has a higher percentage of possible sun and less average rainfall than Boston, New York, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington, D. C., and Raleigh, N. C., according to the National Weather Service here.

And an AccuWeather researcher reported in January that Buffalo won the 2008 Sunshine Derby, beating out Rochester, Syracuse and, yes, Orlando.

Furthermore, Buffalo is well-positioned to be a player in the green economy, boosters said, because of its location along the Great Lakes, which makes it a transportation hub; its existing industrial infrastructure; and its highly educated work force.

Solar Liberty, founded in 2003 by brothers Adam and Nathan Rizzo, has worked on dozens of solar panel installation projects around the region and plans to grow from 14 employees to 25 by the end of the year.

Solar panels can generate energy even when it’s cloudy or snowy out — much as one can get sunburned on an overcast day — though they do produce less on gray days.

Night is the only time when the panels can’t produce energy.

Solar energy projects tend to pay for themselves after three to five years, Adam Rizzo said on the roof of Cannon Design, on Grand Island, where workers last week were installing a sea of 120 solar panels. The panels, set up in rows weighted down by concrete ballast blocks, contain dozens of blue cells made out of silicon.

Cannon should get just under 5 percent of its energy from the solar panels. The $170,000 system will reduce the large architectural firm’s carbon footprint by 439 tons over its lifetime, said Eric Lindstrom, an associate vice president at Cannon.

Growing ‘Green Belt’

That’s equivalent to the planting of 17,500 trees, he said.

“We’re trying to live what we tell our clients,” said Lindstrom.

Another local company, National Solar Technologies in Depew, designs and assembles stand-alone solar systems for sites — such as at national parks — where it isn’t feasible to connect to the grid.

Along the waterfront in Lackawanna, Buffalo and parts north, a critical mass of green companies and projects is developing. This informal “Green Belt” includes the off-shore Steel Winds wind farm, the RiverWright ethanol plant, Nano- Dynamics and Honeywell Buffalo, said Brian Reilly, city commissioner of economic development.

Tamarack Lake Electric Boat Co. could be part of this cluster. The Ontario company is seriously considering setting up a factory here to build solar-powered recreational boats.

Tamarack has built six of the boats, comparable to 22-foot pontoon boats, with one in use at a summer camp near Huntsville, Ont., and one used to ferry tourists to Mayan ruins in Belize, said Montgomery Gisborne, the company president.

The company is seeking financing for a 20,000-square-foot facility that, within five years, could expand to have 120 employees and produce 1,200 boats annually, Gisborne said.

Governments and institutions also are jumping on the renewable bandwagon, adding solar arrays and making municipal buildings more energy-efficient.

This activity is spurred by incentives from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and from the federal economic stimulus package, which contains $65 billion for energy projects, the solar society’s Lurie said.

A diversified portfolio

Solar energy can’t compete on cost with cheaper methods of generating electricity, such as coal-burning plants, without subsidies and tax credits, advocates acknowledged.

But solar, if it can be combined with wind and biofuels and harvested efficiently, has the potential to be a viable source of energy for the region, said Dennis A. Andrejko, associate professor of architecture at the University at Buffalo and a member of the conference’s national organizing committee.

“We have to have a diversified portfolio,” Andrejko said.

In Black Rock, Hogle’s 125,000-square-foot Rock Harbor Commons building, set to open in January, will house college students in a renovated industrial facility that will get its heat through boilers running on vegetable oil and waste food grease from area restaurants, said Hogle, who owns the three-story facility and the nearby E. B. Atlas Steel.

The solar conference itself is generating some green ideas.

Solar Liberty is donating its services to install solar panels on the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center, site of the conference. The Convention&Visitors Bureau, working with the Hyatt Regency Buffalo and other partners, will compost all of the uneaten food served at the conference, Zanghi said.

But whither the weather?

Zanghi admitted she is keeping an eye on the forecast this week.

At least we know there won’t be snow on the ground.

swatson@buffnews.com