Tagged: solar

New solar panels at the University at Buffalo double as an art installation. 

The $7.5 million project, funded by the New York Power Authority (NYPA) and SUNY, will power student apartments while sprucing up the landscape.

When viewed from the sky, the strand of solar panels resembles DNA - a tip of the hat to UB's strengths in research and science.

Solar firm Natcore Technology cut the ribbon on its new R&D center at Eastman Business Park Friday.

The official opening of the million-dollar clean room consolidates Natcore's R&D work in Rochester.

But getting funding for a solar manufacturing line remains a challenge.

It's not looking good for subsidies for renewable energy.

A 30 percent upfront tax credit for commercial renewable power projects known as the 1603 program expired at the end of 2011.

Another 30 percent credit for wind projects, that's a part of the long-debated payroll tax bill, is scheduled to expire at the end of 2012.

And while there are still a host of incentives offered by states and the federal government that remain unaffected, the question is inevitable:

Is the federal government preparing to cut loose the renewable power industry?

Executives from foreign solar companies are descending on Rochester over the next couple of weeks, to hear a pitch from Natcore Technology.

“What we’re saying is, ‘If you want our technology, you have to take a hard look at it here,’ ” says Natcore CEO Chuck Provini.

Natcore has a small research facility at Rochester’s Eastman Business Park. For about a year, the company has been looking for money to establish a much bigger manufacturing presence in Rochester. But Natcore says talks with federal and regional officials have yielded no funding.

Now, Natcore is turning to solar companies from India, China and Italy for a possible joint venture that would make flexible solar cells on equipment that once made Kodak film.

But there’s a catch.

“It’s their money,” Provini says of the foreign companies. “And if they say, ‘Chuck, we really enjoyed the visit, but no,’ [then] we’re a business ... and we’ll go where we can best help save the world, not just a country.”

SUNY Buffalo has joined the ranks of the increasing number of colleges and universities hiring sustainability directors.

Now begins the hard part for these employees, tasked with making campuses more environmentally friendly.