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TONAWANDA, NY — The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority is one year in to its massive solar operation, with 1,100 panels located atop a bus maintenance depot at its facility on Military Road.
The project that was put in place last October saved the authority about $15,000 in the past year, according to C. Douglas Hartmayer, communications director for the NFTA.
The blueprint was put into play, Hartmayer said, after NFTA representatives asked the New York Power Authority for a decrease in energy charges, and was declined.
“We were trying to cajole NYPA to try to get some low-cost power,” he said. “And they said ‘we can’t do that.’ ”
But what the often controversial state-owned agency did do was leave the NFTA with a grant worth $1 million, which will save the authority approximately 16 percent of its energy costs for at least the next 25 years — the guaranteed life of the solar panels.
And in recent weeks, as several solar projects have been announced throughout Western New York, and the region continues searching for answers to decades of job loss and a shrinking populace, a local company was recognized by the solar industry as tops in the state for its work with the NFTA.
Solar Liberty of Buffalo completed the best photovoltaic solar project for New York state government in 2010 at the NFTA site, as designated by the New York Solar Energy Industry Association.
The second annual award program is named “6,000 Degrees Celsius,” which is the estimated temperature of the sun’s surface. NYSEIA created the award to recognize concrete solar accomplishments of specific projects and individuals.
The company has worked on hundreds of similar jobs across the state and is closing in on the final months of a 3,000 panel installation at the State University of New York at Buffalo’s north campus.
Jim Walters, a spokesperson for Solar Liberty, said his organization has installed more than 400 solar systems across the state, with the NFTA project being one of the largest.
“It’s expected to produce about 290,000 kilowatts per hour in electricity,” he said. “That would power about 50 households a year.”
Walters said solar panel prices are at an all-time low, with a big market demand from institutions, and growing interest from homeowners who see federal incentives as a motivation to save on electricity costs.
The typical home installation would cost $8,000 to $10,000 with incentives, Walters said, and save about $1,000 a year in electricity costs.
Gail Markels, executive director of NYSEIA, said while there is no doubt the industry is growing, there are still legislative issues that could better-enhance state advances in solar technology.
“Every state around us provides more robust standards and solar incentives,” she said. “By promoting the growth of the solar industry it would help it take off. It would have a tremendous benefit. Look at hydropower, somebody had to provide incentives for that. That’s a great payoff.”
Meanwhile, the NFTA is continuing to eye future solar projects at two other bus depots in the City of Buffalo, and is working on securing funding, while 53 of its 300 buses are hybrids that utilize a battery pack that reduces the amount of fuel consumption, Hartmayer said.
“We would certainly like to install panels on more of our facilities because the results have been very positive,” he said. “We’re saving money, reducing our dependence on nonrenewable fuels, and reducing our emissions.”
The Tonawanda News
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