Largest Private Residential Rooftop Solar Project Planned for NYC
Blackstone and Ivanhoé Cambridge are working on the project at Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village, which will include adding 9,671 high-efficiency solar panels to 22 acres of rooftops.
By Keith Loria
A joint venture between Blackstone and Ivanhoé Cambridge has planned the largest private multifamily residential rooftop solar project in the U.S. at Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village (StuyTown), a 22-acre post-World War II private residential development on Manhattan’s East Side.
Onyx Renewable Partners is serving as project developer for the installation and StuyTown Property Services will run the project.
“Working to make communities more sustainable underpins many of our business decisions,” Daniel Fournier, Ivanhoé Cambridge’s chairman and CEO, said. “We are especially proud of this initiative and congratulate our partners Blackstone and the team at SPS. Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village is a very special place and continues to be a leader in New York City.”
StuyTown has the distinction of being the biggest apartment community in the U.S., consisting of more than 11,200 units in 56 buildings across 80 acres in Manhattan’s East Village. It houses more than 27,000 residents, representing about 1.7 percent of Manhattan’s entire population.
Going green
The plan is to install 9,671 high-efficiency solar panels that will sit across StuyTown’s entire 22 acres of rooftops. The components of the energy system will be bolted to the rooftop to not compromise the integrity of the roof or impact the building apartments. The 3.8-Megawatt solar energy system is designed to generate enough power for more than 1,000 apartments yearly.
Other sustainable initiatives at StuyTown include the installation of LED lighting, high efficiency hot water heat exchangers, elevator shaft louvers to minimize heat loss and domestic water flow control valves. StuyTown’s improvements are one step in Blackstone’s larger initiative to improve sustainability across all of the company’s portfolio.
“We are incredibly proud of the long-term partnership we are building with the StuyTown community,” Nadeem Meghji, Blackstone’s head of real estate Americas, said. “In 2015, we made a commitment to preserve StuyTown’s unique heritage and be responsible stewards of its future. This innovative solar project is one of many initiatives we designed and implemented to make the community more sustainable and environmentally friendly.”
The project is expected to start in the next few months and is scheduled to be finished sometime in 2019.
