CUNY partners with Ulster solar group
Eight years from now, New York City will be required to generate eight megawatts of power from solar energy. The Solar Energy Consortium (TSEC), a nonprofit based in Ulster County seeking to establish a solar energy cluster in New York state, will help it get there, in the meantime giving the mid-Hudson Valley a needed economic development boost.
Those are the plans for a new partnership announced Jan. 3 between TSEC and the Center for Sustainable Energy at City University of New York (CUNY). The arrangement creates a link between the upstate initiative to develop new, more efficient solar technologies and the potentially lucrative market of New York City.
The announcement was made at a press conference held at the Bronx Community College, where the Center for Sustainable Energy is based. Speakers included U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley, a prime supporter of TSEC, who has been instrumental in obtaining several million dollars in federal funds for the initiative, Vincent Cozzolino, CEO of TSEC, and Iris Weinshall, CUNY’s vice chancellor for facilities, construction planning and design.
“The partnership between TSEC and CUNY opens up a very big and critical door of opportunity for solar energy products and devices being researched and manufactured upstate to be used and become more mainstream in New York City,” Hinchey said.
Added Weinshall: “CUNY’s researchers from several of our campuses will be part of the solution to creating a robust solar market in New York state. The goals of this consortium are just what New York needs to capture the power of sunlight, our greatest untapped resource, leading the way to energy independence, a healthier environment and increasing the number of green collar jobs.”
Frederick Schaffer, CUNY’s senior vice chancellor for legal affairs and chair of the CUNY Economic Development Corp. (EDC), said that the EDC had partnered with the Center for Sustainable Energy to develop a business incubator. The collaboration with TSEC would be provide an additional springboard for the generation of solar businesses, he said.
Given that “all the major constituencies have agreed to bring New York City up to some percentage of solar-generated energy, this becomes the science project,” said Cozzolino. Furthermore, “this will create some opportunities given the unique solar systems that are needed. It’ll help the market to be created. New York is going solar, and partnering with CUNY completes the deck of cards that includes the upstate universities already onboard.”
TSEC, which was launched last year, has established partnerships with five other colleges and universities in the state: SUNY Binghamton, Clarkson University, Cornell University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and SUNY New Paltz. Each is engaged in some type of solar energy research and development.
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