EDITORIALS
Make Buffalo shine
Role in hosting solar-power event can help image, economic development
Mention Buffalo to just about anyone on the planet and the response is “snow.” But next month the area gets to dig itself out of an icy image and present to the world its sunnier side, as the annual convention of the American Solar Energy Society heads here.
The conference is important to Buffalo for more than just an image boost. It can have a major economic impact, and it can provide a major local boost for alternative power at a time when cities like Buffalo should be seeking opportunities in emerging energy industries. If this convention spurs interest in “green jobs” development here, the long-term local economy should benefit.
Solar 2009, from May 11 to 16, could draw between 3,500 and 5,000 delegates from across the nation and around the world. A “public day” at the end of the conference is expected to attract thousands to its solar-themed exhibits and projects in and around the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority is a major sponsor of the conference, and Western New York Sustainable Energy Association members will be front and center in the local organizing committee.
Check out this solar house in Main.
The event could not come at a better time. Buffalo’s selection for this solar push represents a significant and positive public outreach for alternative energy here, while the national focus on green technology is at an all-time high with development incentives on the state and federal levels. Positioning this region to take advantage of that could pay off in opportunities for business location and jobs.
The region, already home to clean hydropower and a growing number of wind power installations, has a lot to showcase. It now has a series of “green” buildings with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certification— including the University at Buffalo’s new Life Sciences Complex, BlueCross BlueShield’s Buffalo headquarters and the Burchfield Penney Art Center, which is slated for LEED “silver” certification.
Metro-area renewable energy projects here include large photovoltaic solar arrays at UB and the Buffalo Museum of Science, the Steel Winds site along Lake Erie, geothermal installations at Babeville—the former Asbury Delaware United Methodist Church on Delaware Avenue—and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Darwin Martin House. The Niagara Power Project in Lewiston is an iconic renewable hydropower installation. Participants in next month’s conference can sign up for any number of tours featuring these buildings and systems, in addition to visiting an international environmental consulting firm in a LEED “platinum” building, Ecology and Environment in Lancaster.
The public workshop on May 16, at $5 per person, offers a peek into a premier national solar conference. Non-conference visitors also can preregister for the tours.
And if this push isn’t enough, a precursor and overlapping Green Business Expo, May 9 to 16 in Main Place Mall, is being organized by State Sen. Antoine M. Thompson, D-Buffalo, chairman of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee.
One of Buffalo’s best-kept secrets is the fact that we have more sunny days from May through September than any other city in the Northeast—a factor that helped, along with combined efforts by organizers and the Buffalo Niagara Convention& Visitors Bureau, to bring the intercollegiate “Solar Splash” solar/electric boat competition to Delaware Park’s Hoyt Lake five years in a row.
This conference, with its discussions of green technology by industry experts, should help stimulate interest here in becoming a host community for solar manufacturers, renewable energy and other initiatives that can be a source of green jobs and a growing number of companies focused on green technology.
Local conference organizers deserve praise for this effort. Here’s hoping the nation’s renewable energy experts leave Buffalo next month with a sunnier view of the City of Light.
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