Solar One

Crawfish Boil For a Song 2012 – May 26 & 27

M.Rosa — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:15:06 +0000

Solar 1 and Stuyvesant Cove Park are this site of Crawfish NY’s annual New Orleans style crawfish boil to benefit Kids Need a Melody, which provides free music programs to children in shelters. Come on Saturday, May 26 or Sunday, May 27 to enjoy this feast alongside the East River. Enjoy four hearty crawfish pours cooked with all the traditional ingredients (corn, potatoes, mushrooms, onions, garlic, sausage and spices!) served with ice cold Abita beer and New Orleans hurricanes. Tickets and Info: Crawfish NY.

**Everyone who is 21 years or older with a valid ID and loves mudbugs is welcome! Sorry, no kids of any age**

The Energy Saving Power of Supers and Tenants

Jamie — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:38:55 +0000

While solar panels and green roofs get a lot of the spotlight when it comes to greening buildings, the most cost-effective measures have always looked to improve efficiency first and foremost. Habitat Mag covered this topic today in an article on the importance of supers in the success of any greening measures a building may undertake. The major effort in this regard has been the 1,000 Green Supers training offered by the 32BJ Training Fund that has already “certified more than 1,500 union members in green operations and maintenance”. That’s great news for the urban environment of New York City as more green supers means energy savings and cleaner environments both inside and outside our buildings.

On the other side of the coin, a super’s efforts can be undermined by tenants who aren’t informed of what’s happening in their buildings and the role that they play in greening efforts. Solar One’s Whole Buildings program works to bring that information directly to tenants as well as to supers who may not have had the opportunity to do any training. Over the past 2 years, we have worked with dozens of buildings and thousands of tenants to help reduce energy use and the cost of operating buildings.

These types of programs are a great start, but with so many thousands of buildings in the City, there’s always more to do. If you’re a building owner looking to do energy retrofits, check out the New York City Energy Efficiency Corporation which might be able to help you finance your project and connect to other resources available to you. You can also look to programs such as “Green My Building” from Consolidate Energy Solutions. Because the cheapest energy, is the energy you don’t have to use.

Bicycle Blenders, Solar-powered eco-Sheds, Veggies in Jamaica. Help our IOBY campaigns!

M.Rosa — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 21:07:26 +0000

Several schools in Solar One’s Green Design Lab K-12 sustainability education program launched IOBY campaigns. IOBY- In Our Back Yard – is a crowdsourcing site for environmental projects. Can you help these schoolwide sustainability projects get off the ground? The Green Design Lab IOBY projects include:

Pedal-powered bicycle blenders at PS 33 in Manhattan
A vegetable and flower garden at Queens Collegiate
Replacing lighbulbs with energy-efficient LEDs in Staten Island
Starting a community garden at MS 88 in Brooklyn
Installing a solar-power system on an eco-shed at the Bushwick Campus Farm

First DANCE PARTY of the season – May 4

M.Rosa — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:15:49 +0000

Come to first outdoor dance party of the season! Solar One is host to the Dance Your Values Party, which is part of Shop Your Values Week. Dance Your Values is the only FREE, outdoor, solar-powered dance party where you can make a pledge to live your values AND have a beer AND dance by the East River!

Co-presented by Solar One and Fourth Arts Block

Discount beer graciously provided by Brooklyn Brewery

With DJ Anton Bass of Sea To Sun; live music by Stega.

Stuyvesant Strolls – June 12

M.Rosa — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:36:28 +0000

Spring is time to enjoy Stuyvesant Cove Park‘s breezy coolness! Join us for a guided tour of the Park’s early spring blossoms. June 12, 2012, 10 am – 12pm.

RSVP/info to daisy[at]solar1[dot]org.

Earth Day NYC 2012

M.Rosa — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:35:37 +0000

Solar One will be tabling in Times Square on April 20 and at Grand Central Station on April 21 as part of a city-wide array of events for Earth Day 2012. More events: www.earthdayny.org.

We will also be tabling at the NYC Green Festival on April 21 and 22nd at the Jacob Javits Center. Please visit the NYC Green Festival website for more information!

Smart Buildings – Clean EC panel – June 6, 2012

M.Rosa — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:15:07 +0000

Clean Energy Connections kicked off their 2012 panel series with two enlightening discussions – March’s “Power in Numbers: Capitalizing on the Data of Cleantech” and January’s “No Money No Problems? Financing Cleantech in the Post-ARRA Era.” Join Clean EC for the next panel on Smart Buildings taking place June 6, 2012 in the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, 44 Charlton Street @ Varick. For registration and details check out www.cleanecnyc.org.

SAVE THE DATE! Revelry By the River Returns June 11, 2012

D.Elkan — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:56:26 +0000

Solar One’s annual fundraising gala and awards dinner, Revelry By the River, will take place Monday June 11 at Guastavino’s on East 59th Street. This year’s event celebrates Sir Richard Branson’s Carbon War Room Project, which brings together some of the best business minds in the world to tackle the problem of global climate change. The award will be accepted by CEO Jigar Shah.

Sponsorships are available via our secure online donations page. Tickets will be available soon! We hope you will join us!

Scroll down to see some pictures of last year’s event, held at Sotheby’s, and honoring Gina Argento/Broadway Stages and Elettra Wiedemann:

For more information and pictures from past Revelry events, please visit our Revelry page.

Bring the Green Design Lab to Your School!

D.Elkan — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 21:16:00 +0000

Solar One’s Green Design Lab program is now accepting applications for the 2012/2013 school year! This program uses the school building itself to teach about the environment, energy, food, water, materials and air quality, all while helping students”green” their school building. Click HERE to download the RFP and instructions, and please visit gdl.solar1.org to learn more about this fantastic opportunity.

2011 Was a Great Year for Solar!

Jamie — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 21:57:22 +0000

Over at GreenTech Media, they just released the results from their “U.S. Solar Market Insight: 2011 Year-in-Review” done in conjunction with the Solar Energy Industry Association. It’s an exciting report covering a “record breaking” year for solar power in the U.S. and to highlight the good news, they pulled out the Top Ten US Solar Stats from 2011. Among them:

7) 28.Number of projects over 10 megawatts completed in 2011.

In 2009, only two PV projects over 10 megawatts were completed in the U.S. In 2010, the number rose to eight. In 2011, 28 such projects were connected to the grid, marking the true beginning of a burgeoning utility-scale solar market.

5) 776 megawatts. PV installations in Q4 2011.

The U.S. installed 776 megawatts in Q4 2011, up 64 percent over Q3 2011 and up 115 percent over Q4 2010. Every market segment had a record quarter, as did ten individual states

You can download the executive summary for free, but the whole thing will cost you a healthy amount. They have to keep the lights on, after all.