AlternativeEnergy.com interviewed Tria Case from the Center for Sustainable Energy at Bronx Community College to see how a major urban center is approaching the issue of Alternative Energy. We learned

• New York designated as one of 13 solar cities across the country
• New York City may have the ability to have as much as 6,000 megawatts of solar on its rooftops.
• 10% of City University of New York's power coming from Renewable Sources (CUNY is 1% of New York's total)
• Their classes on sustainability are filled to capacity

[Our site is very interested in education and green collar jobs. There will expanded coverage of these sections in the coming months. Check the tabs above the latest information.]

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AlternativeEnergy.com: I thank you for joining AlternativeEnergy.com today in this call. Tell me about yourself and your organization and the area you really want to focus on in this call.

Tria Case: Well, I am the Executive Director of the Center for Sustainable Energy which is located at the City University of New York Bronx Community College Campus. And I also direct the City University's sustainability project, which is an outgrowth of our commitment to reduce our carbon footprints by 30% over the next ten years and also to integrate sustainability into the fabric of the University. So I'd like to focus on the work that we are doing in those two areas.

AE.com: OK, that's great; so go ahead give us the first area.

Tria: So the Center for Sustainable Energy was established in 2003 at Bronx Community College. Its mission is to promote and implement the use of sustainable and energy efficient technologies in urban communities through education, training, workforce development, research and project facilitation.

To give you a sense of some of the things that we are doing, the Center is partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy, the Mayor's office of Sustainability in Long Term Planning and the New York City Economical Development Corporation in the Solar City's Partnership. That effort is actually an outgrowth of, as you may recall, the Million Solar Roofs Initiative.

AE.com: Right.

Tria: Under the Million Solar Roofs Initiative, the Center conducted a study of the potential for solar in New York City and we also looked at what the current barriers are for realizing our solar potential. From that process we developed a road map and a set of suggestions for the City and for the State about how we can realize New York City's solar potential. With that we applied to the U.S. Department of Energy under their new Solar City Initiative and were designated as one of 13 solar cities across the country. The Center is now implementing that partnership.

Part of that partnership is a commitment, which was signed off on and supported by the Mayor and Con Edison to put in place 8.1 megawatts of solar in New York City.

AE.com: Now when you usually think about solar, you think about Arizona desert and the Nevada desert. You don't really think about New York City, certainly not Manhattan. So where would these solar panels be located? Are they PV? Is it concentrated solar? What's the strategy?

Tria: Well, in New York City you could look at PV on rooftops. We certainly have plenty of those. And you can also look at BIPV, Building Integrate PV that you can see down at, for example, Battery Park City.

We actually have plenty of sun and there are studies, which show that if you think about our peak...New York City's problem is our peak load, right?

AE.com: Right.

Tria: We have to produce 80% of our power from within our city limits and every summer we're coming very close to that 80% mark. So we either need to reduce our energy use or find ways to produce more energy from within our city limits.

If you think about when we are at our peak, it's when the sun is out and everyone's got their air conditioners on, everyone's in their offices, right? Well, when the sun is out PV is producing at its peak. So it has a nice coincidence of power production when we are at our peak load.

So we're starting to look at how we could make use of that. How we might be able to reduce our building energy demand by use of PV and that's one way that we're addressing this. There are obviously other ways that one can look at PV but certainly as a peak load reduction technology, it is an interesting tool.

AE.com: And BIPV …?

Tria: Instead of being on the roof, it's integrated into the side of your building, into the actual materials of your building. And there are certainly locations around...

AE.com: Well, there is certainly a lot more surface area for that than on the top.

Tria: True. The estimates have shown that we have the opportunities for about 6,000 megawatts of solar on our rooftops.

AE.com: Wow, that's a lot.

Tria: Yeah.

AE.com: OK.

Tria: So that's just one example of the research and implementation side of what the Center has been working on. We also have an automotive technology program where we're looking at opportunities for alternative fuel vehicles around New York City.

We actually have a training program for folks who want to understand how to work with alternative fuel vehicles. In fact the program at Bronx Community College was just certified by the National Automotive Technician's Education Foundation and the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence. So that's very exciting for the program at Bronx Community College, which is the only of its kind in the CUNY system.

Now to talk a little bit about what we're doing around CUNY.

AE.com: OK.

Tria: CUNY, as I have said earlier accepted the Mayor's University challenge around Plan YC2030, which means that we've accepted to reduce our carbon footprints by 30% over the next 10 years. In doing that, we also agree that we would find ways to integrate sustainability into the University. So we have created a.... We're using what one would call a "changed management structure" in order to bring sustainability into the University. We've created a task force, which includes 21 committees focused on all of the varying areas in the University that impact the sustainability or could impact sustainability.

We've asked each of our campuses to create a sustainability council that has the responsibility of coming up with its plan for how each campus will meet its 30% reduction and integrate sustainability into the campuses.

Right now they are actually looking at how to determine their baseline. Where are they today? And we're figuring out what our current common footprint is so that we can make a plan for the next ten years.

AE.com: OK and where do you see the percentage of electricity...? In ten years from now, where do you see the percentage of removal of electricity?

Tria: Hmm.

AE.com: In your city and area, maybe 20 years, too?

Tria: Well, the first thing to note is that CUNY currently uses about 1% of New York City's peak load.

AE.com: OK.

Tria: So we recognize that what we do can certainly make a difference within the city.

The first thing that we had done was look at how we can possibly purchase renewable energy credits or purchase green power. So we've actually already purchased renewable energy credits from wind and are at about 10% of our power purchased through renewable energy credits and are the eighth largest purchaser of renewable energy of all the universities in the country participating in the EPA Green Power Partnership. Very proud of that.

AE.com: Great.

Tria: Yeah, very proud of that. The next thing that we're doing is looking at where can we place renewable energy within our facilities and where we can place alternatives, so that we can lighten our load on the grid. And we've looked at everything from combined heat and power to solar and we have done an analysis of our rooftops and we will look at how we could procure solar or combined heat and power, whatever would make the most sense, on each one of our campuses as part of our longer‑term plan. But we're currently at 10%. So, you know, that's...

AE.com: Tell me about the educational activities that you're doing.

Tria: Through the Center for Sustainable Energy and the Energy Service Technician program at Bronx Community College, we've developed numerous training programs; ranging from building energy analysis, to building envelope analysis, to installation, how to install a PV system, a solar system and also even how to analyze the financial benefits of the installation of a system.

AE.com: Do you have a class that's dedicated to that, just that one subject?

Tria: There's a software program called RET‑Screen and we have run courses in how to use RET‑Screen. And we'll probably do that again in the coming semester.

AE.com: OK.

Tria: We've also...

AE.com: I'd like to take that class...

Tria: [laughs]

OK, you're more than welcome to. We've also been running courses on geothermal and how to build a grease car. We have two conferences that we hold each year. One is the Solar Summit and this year the Solar Summit will be on June 17th down at the Museum of the American Indian. Last year's summit, we focused on the future of solar in the city, our analysis of our potential and our road map for how to reach that potential.

This year we're going to focus more on the technical aspects of solar, what the technology capabilities are now, what's coming down the pipe and also we'll have some discussion about installing PV in New York City. We'll have some folks who can explain their processes and what they've experienced in installing solar in the city.

AE.com: Have you looked at wind in the city?

Tria: Yeah. We've also looked at wind. We have not held any courses on wind but we've certainly talked to and supported folks in looking at wind, what I would call "small wind", on facilities in New York City. The potential for solar, when you think about city buildings, is much greater.

AE.com: It just seems like if you could ever get one of those wind turbines on top of a building, there'd be a lot of wind up there.

Tria: It's true. Yeah. Yeah. And certainly, as I said, it's an area that we support. We've not yet run any courses in how to install, for example, a wind turbine on a building.

AE.com: Right.

Tria: That's something we may do down the pipe. We haven't found the demand for that to be as great, by the way. You know, the thirst for information around that has not come to us in the same way that, maybe, combined heat and power has or geothermal has or solar has.

I would add that there's no one technology that's the answer, so it's going to be a combination of energy‑producing technologies. Like wind turbines and solar and energy efficiency or energy use reduction technologies, like even green roofs.

AE.com: What... oh, green roof? Tell me about a green roof. What's a green roof?

A green roof would be the installation of a surface using plants and grasses that would, in essence, reduce the heat load of your roof and therefore reducing your energy use.

AE.com: Right.

Tria: And they're all over the city now.

But again, you know, the difference is, when we talk about wind and we talk about solar, we're talking about energy‑producing technologies versus a green roof, or putting building controls in your building, for example, which are reducing your energy use.

AE.com: Right.

Tria: And we have to do both.

AE.com: There's a lot of potential to increase efficiency in Manhattan, I'm sure. I think that the statistics show that increasing efficiency has a much better payback and the consumption and the waste in these buildings is just enormous, especially the older buildings. OK, so what kind of lessons can people across the country in other universities learn from your efforts?

Tria: Well, the one thing, for sure... Around being able to move a market and remove barriers to introduction of a technology, it's very important to have everybody at the table. All the folks who have some say or interest in the technology being implemented should be at the table and helping to come up with a solution.

So we certainly found that to be important around the Million Solar Roofs and Solar Cities Partnership and the fact that... for example, ConEd. A utility, must be at the table for a city to be considered a solar city is very important because if the utility does not want to support the technology, it makes it so difficult to adapt it.

I would also say that it is important to develop curriculum that is bringing people to a standard that businesses who would be hiring them feel is appropriate and so, making sure that, as we develop our programs, we know what is happening in the marketplace is very, very important.

AE.com: What has been the response from students to some of the class offerings that you have.

Tria: Our classes have been to capacity. Geothermal training has been to capacity, our PV, our solar installation classes have been to capacity. We recently held a class on New York City codes and how the New York City codes impact, in particular, installation of distributed generation. Also to capacity, so I think there is a great thirst for knowledge out there and our hope is that we can satisfy that and that we can develop a curriculum that is meeting the needs of the new green collar workers.

AE.com: So do you explain to these prospective students that there is a big demand for green collar jobs? Could you give me a little bit more background on green collar jobs?

Tria: One of the things that's happened in New York City and really around the country, is that the playing field has really changed. When the mayor announced plan YC2030, for example, he put into place or when he put into place Local 8‑6, which requires buildings that receive a certain amount of money from the city to be LEED‑certified, it means that you need people who understand how to build an efficient building.

AE.com: Right.

Tria: So folks who are going through construction trades programs, for example, need to know how they can, when they're constructing that building, how they make sure that it meets those standards. Or even architects, when they're designing those buildings, need to understand how to design buildings that meet those standards. So by changing that playing field and putting policies in place that require this new standard, it changes what's required of workers.

And now, we need folks who can manage buildings that have new control systems in them that allow them to meet these new standards, that are designing those buildings in that way and who are building those buildings in that way. So we need to make sure that, as we change rules and change policies, that we've got the people in place who can actually implement them. And that's what's creating this demand.

AE.com: Do you have any way of quantifying that demand at this point? Do you have any idea, like, is that the fastest‑growing sector in the New York area, for example? Do you have any data like that?

Tria: You know, I don't have any data that I could point to that I would feel comfortable saying, "This is a statistically‑done analysis" but I do understand that that is being done right now. So, very shortly, I think we'll probably have some solid data to look at.

I know that when plan‑YC was first announced there was a discussion about 5000 jobs out of plan‑YC just in the energy sector but I know that there are other analyses that are being put into place right now. And I would say that if you think intuitively about what is happening, you've got a demand for both existing workers to learn now about a new standard and a new technology that they've got to be able to design and implement or maintain and then you've also got new workers coming into the field who need to be up‑to‑date.

AE.com: Right. So there's a little bit of re‑education as well.

Tria: Yeah, absolutely.

AE.com: Interesting. OK, so just circling back for a moment to geothermal and then we'll call it a day. I've been following a lot of the potential of geothermal, specifically at West and EGS and it's very encouraging. But I haven't heard about, really, anything in New York other than those heat pumps.

Tria: Right.

AE.com: What's your geothermal take?

Tria: Well, there is certainly opportunity anywhere to implement a geothermal system if you can either dig a well vertically or horizontally. So there are more and more folks, again, who are looking at geothermal as an opportunity to reduce their need for fossil fuel.

AE.com: But where is this being done in the New York area?

Tria: There are a few systems around the city but again, I would say that the interest is with the designers who are beginning to think about how they can design new buildings that are using this as a technology to make those buildings more efficient.

AE.com: Thank you so much for joining. I'm sure that the audience will be interested in learning more about what you're doing.