New York City | Solar One

NYC DoE Holds First Climate Summit

by Dinaon 06/06/2018 in Education, Global Warming, Green Design Lab, New York City, Sustainability

Teachers, Instructional Coaches, and Educators from across the DOE participated in the first NYC DOE Climate Summit at the NY Hall of Science in Queens, NY. The Summit was organized by the Office of Sustainability, Solar One, and the Climate and Urban Systems Partnership in an effort to profile the diversity of climate change and how it relates to a variety of school activities and curriculum.

Activities in the two Round Robin sessions included mapping visualizations, climate themed simulations and games, school climate risk assessments, data analysis, health impacts, and climate advocacy.

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Lead Exposure in Children Still a Problem in NYC

by Dinaon 05/02/2018 in Housing, New York City, Pollution

Lead has been flagged as a known health hazard for more than 40 years, but contaminated paint, dust and soil is still a problem in older NYC buildings and neighborhoods that had a lot of automobile traffic during the 50s, 60s and 70s.

Complete removal is difficult, and while cases of lead poisoning in children have been declining steadily since the first lead mitigation building regulations were established in 2004, the demolition and renovation of so many older buildings over the past decade has only added to the problem. The city had originally hoped to completely eliminate lead poisoning by 2010. Unfortunately it was not to be. However, with proper action taken by landlords, and enforcement by city agencies charged with monitoring this issue, New York City can move closer towards its stated goal.

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Ascendant Neighborhood Development to Solarize Buildings in East Harlem

by Dinaon 04/17/2018 in Community Solar, Economy, Green Building, Housing, New York City, Photovoltaics, Pollution, Renewables, Solar Power, Sustainability, Technology

Ascendant Neighborhood Development (AND), an affordable housing company working in East and Central Harlem, has been working since 2015 on a plan to renovate and modernize 21 buildings in its portfolio, and Solar One is delighted to have partnered with AND on the solar portion of their strategy.

Our Here Comes Solar Affordable Solar team did the site assessments and provided technical advice to AND about which of their buildings were best suited for solar installations, and did the estimates of how big the systems could be and how much electricity they could generate. As a result, AND will be installing a 197 kW array, which will generate more than 235,000 kWh every year- enough to provide electricity to all the common areas of all 21 Ascendant Heritage buildings.

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The Green Bronx Machine & The Power of a Plant

by Dinaon 03/26/2018 in Education, New York City, Organic Farming, Sustainability, Technology

The Power of a Plant tells the engaging story of Bronx educator Stephen Ritz and his journey to embody his three Cs- “collisions, connections and co-learnings” through creating the Green Bronx Machine at the National Health, Wellness and Learning Center at CS55 in the South Bronx. Students learn a a variety of curriculum-tied skills while also learning about health, nutrition and the environment.

As he evolves from “Mista” in the 1980s to “Mr. Farmer Steve” in the 21st century, Ritz was inspired by his students’ brightness, creativity and hunger for positive reinforcement; working with special education students in the city’s poorest congressional district meant that positive reinforcement was the last thing his kid were getting. By encouraging each student to “make your thinking visible” helped students to gain the confidence to take on ever-more complex problems. Soon students who had been basically written off as hopeless were taking on beautifying projects in the South Bronx and making the evening news.

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Meet Harvey Epstein

by Dinaon 03/22/2018 in New York City, Politics

With Brian Kavanagh moving to the state Senate, his former seat representing the 74th Assembly District is currently vacant, pending a special election on April 24th.

Harvey was recently kind enough to speak to Solar One over the phone. Here are the things he’d like you to know about him (remarks have been edited for clarity):

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Here Comes Community Solar

by Dinaon 03/01/2018 in Community Solar, Economy, Global Warming, Green Building, Green Collar Jobs, Housing, New York City, Photovoltaics, Renewables, Solar Power, Sustainability, Technology

This post was originally published on the Here Comes Solar blog, and was written by Affordable Solar Program Manager Anika Wistar-Jones.

It’s finally here, the dream of solar enthusiasts all over the city: solar for apartments. For years, while single-family homeowners have been installing solar right and left, New Yorkers have clamored for solar that fits the city lifestyle where most people don’t own their apartments, let alone the roof several floors above them. So New York State made it possible to participate in what’s called “Community Shared Solar”, where one large array – in a field or on a warehouse roof – can send solar credits to anyone in the same utility zone. After months of planning and building, for the first time, this is possible in New York City, and you can join now.

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