NYC aims to be solar energy hub (with help from IBM)

11/06/2012

New York City has big plans to make a name for itself in the sustainable energy sector: It wants to become a solar energy hub and export the solar market analysis tools it is developing throughout the world.

The project is a collaborative effort between IBM and City University of New York's CUNY Ventures, a university Economic Development organization. The primary goal is to support solar adoption by coming up with the capability to analyze and evaluate key solar market indicators that can lead to more cost-competitive solar systems development.

The joint effort is an element of 'Solar Market Analytics, Roadmapping and Tracking NY' (SMART NY), an innovative project partially supported by DOE's Rooftop Solar Challenge. The Solar Challenge is part of a DOE initiative to make solar cost-competitive with other energy sources by the end of the decade.

With IBM's assistance and its Intelligent Operations Center (IOC) software, CUNY Ventures plans to collect and analyze data from a variety of sources and develop a long-term approach to pushing down solar deployment costs. In the beginning, five state and city organizations will use the solar market analytics, including the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the Mayor's Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability, Consolidated Edison and more.

The ultimate goals is for the city to become a solar energy hub and to export the market analysis model to other cities in the state and worldwide. CUNY Ventures also plans to create a sustainable model that can include more data and analytics to help cities and utilities integrate other forms of renewable energy and provide more efficient management of other city services like water and transportation.

"As people migrate to urban centers in greater numbers, demand increases on city infrastructure and resources," said Craig Hayman, general manager for IBM Industry Solutions. "Intelligent automation of key services such as energy, water, transportation and public safety is the solution to help meet these new challenges. Developing leadership in sustainable resources, as New York is doing with solar energy, serves as a model for meeting citizens' needs while achieving the operational goals of the city."

By LM

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