by Kenny Christianson
In the beginning of 2000, Tompkins County (NY) was in the process of converting an old's Woolworth's building into a new county public library. One farsighted member of the county legislature supported the installation of photovoltaic cells in order to generate some of the building's electric naeeds.
The Tompkins County Environmental Management Council was enlisted to prepare a study of the costs and benefits of installing solar panels on the library, and presented their findings to the board in March. The board voted, 10 to 5, to install the solar panels, and installation was begun in October of 2000.
The solar panels were manufactured by Powerlight (http://www.powerlight.com/) and installed by ETM Solar Works (http://www.etmsolar.com/) of Endicott. The 186 kilowatt installation is one of the largest installations in New York State. The cost of the solar panels is slightly over $1 million, witho almost have the cost coming from state and federal grants. The system is estimated to provide over $60,000 in annual savings, with $27,000 in electricity cost savings, $7,000 in maintainance savings and $25,000 in indirect environmental and educational benefits annually. More importantly, the solar panels will avoid the emissions of .33 tons of nitrogen oxides, .87 tons of sulfur dioxide, and 211 tons of carbon dioxide per year.
Tompkins County legislators should be commend for their forward thinking in approving this project. After a short delay by NYSEG to ensure that the system could be connected to the grid properly, the solar panels finally became operational on Feburary 20, 2001. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is planned in the near future.
[reprinted from the Spring 2001 edition of EnergyPlus matters, the EnergyPlus Cooperative Newsletter. The mission of the EnergyPlus Cooperative is to promote a sustainable energy future by uniting small energy consumers to more effectively obtain economical energy resources while promoting a strong community through energy conservation and environmental stewardship. For more information, write
Energyplus Cooperative of the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes
PO Box 6637
Ithaca, NY 14851
607-387-8340
energypluscoop@yahoo.com]
