We Heart New York Firemen! Bellevue’s District 9 Goes Solar
Ever since 9/11, the American people have had an ongoing love affair with the men and women of New York fire departments.
And all the way across the state in the town of Cheektowaga, NY, they’ve given us yet another reason to love them. The Bellevue Fire District No. 9 has officially gone solar, freeing themselves from total dependence on the aging New York electric transmission and distribution infrastructure.
The move also frees the city from generating a small portion of electricity from fossil fuels. New York City primarily burns natural gas, which – though 45-percent cleaner than coal – still produces carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxides, greenhouse gases associated with global warming (or climate change), acid rain and smog. Natural gas is also quite expensive.
Number 9 now boasts a significant number of solar power panels – 140 200-watt panels, to be exact – and all ready to generate more than 23 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per year, according to Nathan Rizzo, president of Buffalo-based Solar Liberty, the company that installed the solar array.
Funded largely by a grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, or NYSERDA – an agency that aims to deliver a clean energy future for the citizens of New York State by pushing the development and implementation of energy technologies like solar, wind and geothermal – the financing saved District No. 9 $137,000 on a total cost of $175,000.
For District No. 9, which serves a seven-square-mile area in Cheektowaga, and responds to about 500 calls a year, the solar power array will offset a minimum of 12 percent of the fire station’s electrical needs.
Granted, that’s not a lot, but it is – as clean energy experts acknowledge – the clearest path to a clean energy economy, which will likely come as readily from many baby steps as from one giant leap.
Delivering 23 kWh, but actually rated at 28 kWh, the solar array could also power four average American homes and is expected to last almost 50 years. It will reduce District No. 9’s carbon footprint by 500 tons of CO2 over the next quarter century, and is expected to save about $4,300 per year.
Shiny, District 9!
Posted on September 7th in Going Solar by Jeanne.