The Greening of Suffolk County Business

The sun, the wind, and acres of farm crops are fueling the move to Renewable Energy

The stressful and debilitating economic downturn is having an uplifting effect on businesses around the nation; some right here on Long Island.

Some engineering and manufacturing companies facing long periods of inactivity are retooling their strategies and are now building and installing solar panels in both residential and commercial sectors. These companies have attracted the interest and support of other firms on Long Island that manufacture and supply specific solar panel parts.

Other hard-pressed firms are spinning their efforts toward constructing and erecting huge windmills that catch and advance wind movements, and generate clean energy.

Before Robert Moses and his cohorts introduced the traffic jam to Long Island, one could hardly travel this thin strip of land without passing thousands of acres of potatoes, sweet corn, and other wholesome veggies. Now, more and more food crop growers are feeding some of their harvests to the transition toward biofuel production.

While you may not yet be involved in the business of renewable energy, a growing number of Suffolk County companies are deeply involved; such as H2M Wind Turbines; Built Well Solar Corporation; Go Solar Inc., just to name a few.

A word of advice to struggling Suffolk County engineering and manufacturing firms: Study the practices of those companies in the county that have already made the move to supporting the move to Renewable Energy. Who knows? Getting involved could bring in some green.

Geothermal Energy Workshop

On January 13, 2010, the Stony Brook University Small Business Development Center held the second in a series of workshops on alternative energy as part of it's NYSERDA funded Energy Company Initiative. The focus of the workshop was on Geothermal energy. The slides from Tony Penaccio of GeoEnergy Enterprises are HERE and, the slides of Dr. Thomas Watson of Brookhaven National Laboratories are HERE . The size of the file of slides from Brian DeLuca of Atlantis Marine World were too large to upload here. We will post them after we break up the presentation into two smaller files.

Once again we would like to thank Bethpage Federal Credit Union for their generous support in sponsoring this and future workshops in this series

Paterson Announces Funding for Renewable Energy Projects

Renewable Energy Funding in NY

Governor David A. Paterson today announced that the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), in conjunction with the Public Service Commission (PSC), will provide nearly $300 million for renewable energy projects under the Renewable Portfolio Standard Program (RPS), which will help accelerate the development of New York’s clean energy economy. With these awards, New York continues to invest in clean energy to achieve Governor Paterson’s goal of meeting 45 percent of the State’s energy needs through energy efficiency and renewable energy by 2015.

Hybrid Solar Panels

Hybrid Solar Panels Combine Photovoltaics with Thermoelectricity: Scientific American:

The DOE awarded Weidlinger Associates, a New York City-based structural engineering firm, a $150,000 grant earlier this month (matched by a 10-percent commitment from the state) to develop durable hybrid solar roofing panels with integrated photovoltaic cells and thermoelectric materials that harvest the sun's energy to produce both electricity and hot water for buildings.

The water tubes are crucial to the design. Typically, when photovoltaics heat up they begin to lose their efficiency at normal operating temperatures in a sunny environment, says Greg Kelly, Weidlinger's director of sustainable design. The design created by Huiming Yin, an assistant professor of civil engineering and engineering mechanics at Columbia, incorporates a capacity to cool down the photovoltaics while also heating water for use in the building to which the panels are attached.

Long Island Winery breaks ground on Wind Turbine Installation

Long Island Winery breaks ground on Wind Turbine Installation :

With the help of the Long Island Power Association’s Backyard Wind Initiative rebate, Osprey’s Dominion will become the first vineyard on Long Island to produce wine using wind power.

Eastern Energy Systems will be installing a ReDriven 20 kW wind turbine at the site. The turbine is expected to produce an estimated 42,802 kWh of electricity per year for an annual energy savings of $7,918.

Eastern Energy Systems is a participant in the Stony Brook Energy Company Initiative.

Hydrogen Power Workshop

On December 9, 2009, the Stony Brook University Small Business Development Center held the first in a series of workshops on alternative energy as part of it's NYSERDA funded Energy Company Initiative. The workshop focus was on Hydrogen Power. The speakers, Dr. Robert Remick, Director of the Hydrogen Technologies Center at NREL in Colorado, and Mr. Stephan Symanski, Business Development Manager of Proton Energy Systems in Connecticut graciously agreed to allow us to post their power point slides on this blog. Dr. Remick's are here(1) and here(2), and Mr. Symanski's are here.

We also want to thank Bethpage Federal Credit Union for their generous support in sponsoring this and future workshops in this series.

NYSERDA Awards to Clean Energy Businesses Announced

NY Awards $3M to Clean Energy Businesses:

"Governor David A. Paterson today announced the award of $3 million to a variety of projects throughout New York. The funds will strengthen and support the growth of New York’s clean energy economy by helping 18 Empire State companies commercialize clean energy technologies."

This is an ongoing grant series that has been targeted by the Stony Brook Energy Company Initiative.