Empire State Building Gets An Energy Efficiency Retrofit

What once was the world’s tallest building, the Empire State Building is undergoing a $500 million eco-friendly makeover that will cut energy consumption nearly 40% in the next three years. The famous New York City landmark is the test case for a new process of analyzing and retrofitting existing structures for environmental sustainability, which will provide a replicable model for similar projects around the world.

The program is being spearheaded by former President Bill Clinton’s Clinton Climate Initiative, as well as the Rocky Mountain Institute, Johnson Controls Inc. and Jones Lang LaSalle.

“In this distressed economic climate, there is a tremendous opportunity for cities and building owners to retrofit existing buildings to save money and save energy,” Mr. Clinton said today.

On the outside, the building will get 6,500 windows refurbished into triple-glazed insulated modules, dramatically improving summer and winter efficiency. On the inside, the 78 year-old building is getting upgraded lighting, lighting controls and lighting design; upgraded or overhauled furnaces, chillers, and air-handlers. There will also be an emphasis put on demand-side management systems, allowing tenants to use their energy efficiently.

“Commercial and residential buildings account for the majority of the total carbon footprint of cities around the world – over 70 percent in New York City,” said Anthony E. Malkin of building owner, Empire State Building Company. “Most new buildings are built with the environment in mind, but the real key to substantial progress is reducing existing building energy consumption and carbon footprint.”

Read more at cleantechnica.com

Turning “Wastelands” into Energy

The United States Interior Department has found a use for 670,000 acres of previously considered worthless sunny deserts and wind-swept plains: solar energy production.

As part of President Obama’s pledge to move away from reliance on fossil fuels and to double renewable energy in three years, the plan has identified 24 solar energy zones spanning six states that could generate nearly 100,000 megawatts of solar electricity.

At the same time, it has become a controversy as environmentalists and politicians, including U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, have decried federal plans to open ecologically sensitive land to development.

“This environmentally sensitive plan will identify appropriate Interior-managed lands that have excellent solar energy potential and limited conflicts with wildlife, other natural resources or land users,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said, hoping to appease doubts about the plan.

The department says the objective is to provide landscape-style planning and zoning for solar projects on Bureau of Land Management lands in the West, allowing a more efficient process for permitting and sitting responsible solar development .

Read more on Reuters.

A Greener California Is Driving Jobs

It turns out that Green Policies are good not only for the environment, but for the California economy as well, according to a study that will be released Monday by UC-Berkeley professor David Roland-Holst.

The study shows that since 1977, energy-efficient policies have created nearly 1.5 million jobs while eliminating fewer than 25,000, improving employee compensation over all by $44.6 billion. “Consumers were able to reduce energy spending,” said Prof. Roland-Holst, adding that “these savings were diverted to other demand.”

“When consumers shift one dollar of demand from electricity to groceries,” he added, they create jobs among retailers, wholesalers, food processors and other businesses.

Read more from the New York Times