For more than five years, Solar 1 , New York City's first solar-powered green energy, arts, and education venue, has acted as a sort of "center" for New York City's green movement. Located on the East River waterfront in Manhattan at 23rd Street, the solar-powered classroom and the surrounding park (Stuyvesant Cove Park) have hosted eco-festivals, Citysol), Green Drinks events and countless green lectures, solar-powered movies, cultural activities and fundraising efforts. Still, many New Yorkers have never visited the site, thanks to its waterfront location, which is many blocks from the subway and in the shadow of the FDR Drive.
All of this will soon change for the better as Solar 1 begins to make its long-awaited transformation into the bigger and better Solar 2, thanks to Mayor Bloomberg's recent announcement that he will support the project with $3 million in city funds as part of hisPlaNYC effort.
What's Solar 2? Well, from the very beginning, the Community Environmental Center, which was designated by the city to manage Stuyvesant Cove Park and Solar 1, had planned to raise millions of dollars to build the ultimate high performance green classroom and cultural center in the park, featuring:
- LEED Platinum certification (the highest possible) with 'net-zero' energy use, generating more electricity than it actually uses through building-integrated photovoltaic cells,
- Geothermal wells for more efficient cooling and heating,
- A "green screen" of vines growing on the outside of the building to help cool and heat the building, and
- A green roof and rainwater collection devices.
With 8,000 square feet of space, Solar 2 will greatly expand CEC's efforts on Manhattan's waterfront, and act as destination for New Yorkers and visitors alike. It will be a living example of the latest green building technologies, hopefully one that inspires more New Yorkers to take the plunge with their own houses and apartments.
To learn more about Solar 2, check out this cool video.
