Allan Appel Photo
Office of Sustainability Director Christine Eppstein-Tang and City Librarian Christopher Korenowsky with a model solar panel.
Two arrays of 60 solar panels are now powering all the computers, the alarms, and even the elevator at the Fair Haven branch. And the installation was free.
Officials from the library, the city’s Office of Sustainability and the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority (CEFIA) cut a yellow solar-colored ribbon Tuesday afternoon at the branch to celebrate the installation.
The two arrays on the roof are a reward to the city from CEFIA acknowledging more than 1,300 New haveners and businesses signing up for clean energy option on their utility bills since the program began in 2005. New Haven was the first town in New England to commit to the incentive program, called Clean Energies Communities.
“New Haven is the clean energy capital of the state,” said Bob Wall, CEFIA’s director of marketing and outreach.
Stephan Hartman’s Ross Solar Group installed the library’s solar array.
The Office of Sustainability’s Giovanni Zinn said the library was selected because of its flat roof, good exposure, and because people in the adjacent Fair Haven School can look out from the second floor and see the roof panels. They see “renewable energy in action. It works not only in the desert but New Haven,” Zinn said.
As part of its participation in CEFIA’s incentive program, the city earns a point for every residence or business that checks off on the utility bill instructions for U.I. to buy clean and renewable energy.
The library’s solar photovoltaic system collects sunlight, turns it into D.C. power, then inverts it to A.C. and sends it onto the grid.
Every home, business, or non profit such as a synagogue that on its own installs a solar array or clean energy system garners the city more points. Every one hundred points earns the city free installation of a one-kilowatt solar system. Fair Haven’s is a 13.5 kilowatt array.
Other systems similarly earned have been installed at Common Ground High School and at the caretaker’s cottage at Lighthouse Point Park, but the library’s is the largest thus far. The CEFIA press release says the total cost of the Fair Haven installation was $71,060.